To Fulfill a Reunion
by TenkuuBatsu
Summary: Time never once stopped, and life was ever-changing.  But his loyalties didn't falter, and his determination never faded.  Because it was a promise, and he'd planned to keep it- even after death. A Naruto-Bleach Crossover fanfic.
1. Enveloping Light

_CHAPTER 1- Prologue- Enveloping Light

* * *

_

_Hitsuji, saru, uma, tori, tatsu, hebi, hitsuji, nezumi, inu, tora…_

Sweat trickled down Naruto's brow as he finished the last of his hand seals after much exertion on his part. He could now see why Jiraiya had classified this jutsu as Forbidden; the chakra drain was alarming, even by his insane standards. If it wasn't for the Kyuubi, he would've probably collapsed- die, even- as soon as he formed the first five seals, from chakra exhaustion.

That being said, anyone who had attempted the jutsu probably had a death wish in the first place; it was just a matter of hanging out long enough for the jutsu to take its effect, rather than dying before accomplishing anything. Naruto was hanging on, but just barely. The jutsu was already digging into his life chakra.

The fox was screaming at him, at his host's idiocy, but Naruto paid it no heed. Instead, he focused on the opponent in front of him. A pair of mismatched eyes glared hatefully back at him, though it held shock within them as well. "You…you fool! Do you have any idea what that jutsu is going to do to you as well?" Uchiha Madara screamed. His voice held a tinge of panic, which gave Naruto some satisfaction. The Sharingan was spinning wildly in his right eye socket, trying to think up a jutsu to get its master out of their current predicament.

It will be to no avail. With the strong barrier Naruto had previously setup surrounding them, and with the wide blast range of the kinjutsu Naruto was performing, Madara was cornered and had nowhere to escape to. He was weakened to the point that he didn't even have enough chakra left to warp himself away.

"I'll probably die as well, yeah, but at least I'll take you down with me." Naruto replied coolly, forcing out more chakra, never mind that he was already running on more than empty.

"And what will be in it for you? You won't gain anything from this, you foolish boy!"

"For one thing, at least this'll reduce the number of casualties we will have on our side." _'That's right,'_ Naruto thought. _'This damn war has been dragging on for the past year and a half already. Numerous Shinobis and Samurais alike have fallen because of this; I'll put an end to this pain and suffering myself.'_

"_Madara_! Today will be an end to everything! If it means my friends and my comrades can live in a peaceful future, I won't mind sacrificing my life for it!" Naruto harshly declared. Looking Madara in the eye, Naruto grinned wildly. "This will be your final farewell. Goodbye."

"Who do you think you are? Ending me, Uchiha Madara? This is blasphemy! Unthinkable!" Naruto's grin only got wider at the other's terror and fear. "Well, they used to call me the number one knuckleheaded, hyperactive ninja. I can't disappoint them during my last few moments now, can I?"

_Ushi_.

"_**Tengoku Kakomu no Jutsu**__!_"

True to the jutsu, bright white light enveloped the both of them. Naruto felt the last of his chakra reserves fading away, and the distant roaring of an enraged fox at the back of his mind. Madara's inhumane scream of fury was the last thing Naruto registered before he fell, smiling at his victory.

* * *

"NARUTO!"

Sasuke's voice wasn't the only one that rang out throughout the vicinity. Yells of horror from the rest of the rookie 12- though no longer rookies any more- as well as the Jonin Senseis joined his own as well. The numerous scattered fighting around the area slowed to a halt as bright light engulfed their vision. It faded after a few moments, leaving many blinking their eyes as their vision was regained.

Sasuke didn't even wait for his eyes to start functioning properly again. He rushed forwards, intent on finding his once-regained best friend, Kakashi close at his tail. The infuriating barrier Sasuke and Kakashi had been trying to break for the past ten minutes had dissipated away seconds before, without its caster supplying energy to sustain it further. Sasuke felt his stomach drop as his vision finally cleared, revealing his blond teammate bruised and still on the ground.

"Dobe. Hey, DOBE! Wake up! What happened?" Sasuke kneeled down and roughly shook his teammate's pale form. "Wake the hell up, usuratonkachi!"

"S-Sasuke-teme…K-Kashi'-sensei…" Naruto's eyes flipped open, but his pupils were dull, lifeless, and staring blankly into open space. The corner of his lips twitched upwards to form a grin, but it took a lot of effort on the blonds' part to do so. His entire body was wrecked with spasms and his chest was heaving heavily with the effort to breath.

"Naruto, don't talk anymore." Kakashi swooped down beside Sasuke, inspecting his other student. "Sakura should be here in a moment-"

"I don't have long…" Naruto seemed not to hear Kakashi as he wheezed out painfully. "That jutsu… used up the last of my chakra. But… But I did it… I defeated Madara-"

"Naruto, shut up. That's enough. Stop talking." Sasuke snapped, willing himself not to panic; to stay calm. '_Why isn't the Kyuubi's chakra healing him?_'

Naruto continued on nonetheless, even when each breath he took seemed to cause him much pain. "I'm glad that you're all safe… you guys… don't feel sad after I'm gone… I didn't regret my actions even for a single moment…"

"What are you saying? You moron, stop talking right now! The medics are arriving soon, you won't die-" Sasuke choked back the tears which threatened to fall. "I won't let you die!"

"I guess… my only regret was not being able to become H-Hokage…" Naruto gave a rueful grin and turned to face Sasuke's general direction, but his gaze was still clouded and blank. " So t-take care of the village for me…"

Before Sasuke could protest and scream at the blond, Kakashi cut him off, head bowed and eyes sorrowful. "Don't worry, Naruto, we will."

"I'll be going then… and I don't want any of you following me… for at least another fifty years, y-you hear me…? Then…we'll watch the fireworks again… all of us, together…it's a promise…" Closing his eyes, Naruto murmured, breathing his last. "_Ittekimasu_."

"_Itterasshai_."

"NARUTOOOOO!"

* * *

Author notes:

Cheesiness, _check_. Dramatic moments, _check_. OOCness, canon spoiler, and other wishy-washy whatnot, _check_. I don't see why you have managed to read this far, and for that I must applaud you. I'll applaud you more if you even bother to review.

Just to clear several things up- Yes, this story follows current manga plotline, so I might have confused readers who are not up to date with the manga. Sadly, it deviates from canon from here onwards. This is about 2 years after Madara declared war with the Five Great Nations, so Naruto and gang should be about 17-18. Naruto and Sasuke have somehow patched up- I probably won't go into much detail about that- and what I wrote was the final battle scene. Sorry everyone, Naruto _has_ to die to get to Soul Society; this is a crossover fanfiction. I NEED him to cross over.

Tengoku Kakomu no Jutsu- Heavenly Enveloping Jutsu. I couldn't think of anything better. (ToT)  
Ittekimasu- I'm leaving  
Itterasshai- Have a safe trip  
Translation's not really accurate, but that's as close as it can get.

Feel free to comment your confusions. I'll try to clear them up in the next chapter- provided your questions do not risk plot spoilers.  
(*^▽^*)

I'll be updating again soon.

**TenkuuBatsu**


	2. Lost in Sentiments

_CHAPTER 2- Lost in Sentiments

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_

Naruto sighed dejectedly at yet another fruitless trip from Rukongai. Removing his zanpakuto, Shinseihiko, from his obi, he tossed it to one corner of his room and sat down with a heavy sigh on the porch, gazing upwards towards the blue, cloudless sky overhead. Shinko would probably nag and grumble at him later for his lack of 'respect' and whatnot later, not like Naruto would give a damn about it. Naruto would roll his eyes and snore, and they would fling insults at each other, and somehow all would be good at the time he was dispatched on another hollow extermination mission.

Many of his fellow Shinigami comrades found their relationship weird- whatever happened to the mutual trust and understanding Shinigamis must have with their zanpakuto? They had concluded that that that was the reason why Naruto has never been able to achieve anything higher than a shikai. Naruto snorted. If only they knew.

Thinking back, Naruto had found it highly amusing that Seireitei had found him to be a prodigy. Apparently to them, he was a 'naturally skilled fighter' with a 'large reiatsu reserve'. The only thing that held him back was his inability to memorize Kidou chants and his lack of motivation to achieve better then what he already has. The first only allowed him to perform a mere handful of Kidou, and the second made him stuck at fourth seat for over the past twenty or so years. Lately, Ukitake-taichou has been pestering him to take up the seat of lieutenant, much to Kiyone's and Sentarou's horror. He refused each of the repeated offers vehemently, of course.

Prodigy indeed… he was only luck he had retained all the instincts and fighting skills and smarts from his past life. If he, Uzumaki Naruto, the dead-last and dropout of his year could gain the title of _prodigy_, Naruto wondered what Seireitei would call Neji and Sasuke when they came. Kami, maybe. The thought of these black clad people worshiping Sasuke made him chortle out loud. _'Wait. Wouldn't that made Sasuke's already bloated head swell bigger?'_Naruto stopped his sniggers at the fearsome thought and he shuddered. _'On second thoughts, maybe Sasuke shouldn't become a shinigami... '_

It has already been more than sixty-seven years since he ended up, lost and confused in Seireitei. It's been sixty-one years since he entered Seireitei and joined the Shinigami Academy. Fifty-eight years since he mastered his Shikai. Forty-nine years since he quit the Kidou Corps and joined the Thirteenth division. And he's been lying stagnant here ever since. It was getting boring, dreary, and agitating his nerves.

"Damn. I told them not to follow me, but seriously, this is too much!" Naruto yelled in frustration. He had been taking several trips down to Rukongai ever since he had entered the thirteenth division and found himself with loads of free time to spare, but he had never once caught a glimpse of anyone he recognized. Even though it probably was peacetime now after Madara was gone, missions still have to be done and a typical Shinobi on service probably won't live beyond fifty.

Calculating in his head mentally, Kakashi would have to be at least over ninety if he was still alive, as to which Naruto highly doubted. But never once did Naruto ever catch a glimpse of his shock of silvery-white hair in both the hundred-over streets of Rukongai and in Seireitei alike. Forget Kakashi, not even a wisp of Jiraiya could be found. After prowling the streets of Rukongai for fifty-over years, Naruto could have practically walk to district eighty in West Rukongai and back with his eyes closed. And list down the number of bathhouses in all three-hundred and twenty districts. Okay, that was a little exaggerated, but still.

Besides, Seireitei should attract the battle-loving Shinobis, right? This was why Naruto had decided to enlist as well, for familiar faces which sadly did not appear. That left Naruto concluding that there must be another afterlife elsewhere, specially for shinobis only, and it was just his luck to land into one separate from the rest. After all, the 'real world' here didn't even resemble anything like the Elemental Nations. A parallel plane, maybe? The thought of no longer being able to reunite with his friends tore at his heart.

"Uzumaki-san. You look dejected. Another failed trip?"

Turning his head, Naruto saw the unranked Shinigami, Kuchiki Rukia, walking towards him, her zanpakuto swinging lightly by her side. She had mastered her shikai eons ago, but remained in the divisions lower ranks, because of her tad over-protective older brother, Byakuya. 'S_eriously, Byakuya can be worse then Neji when he's dealing with Hinata some times._' Giving her a rueful smile, Naruto replied, "What do you think?"

Rukia stopped and sat down gracefully across from him with an exasperated sigh, leaning against the wall. "You never give up, don't you. I guess it would be futile of me to ask you yet again on what you've been so desperately searching for for the past fifty years." Both comments were probably more of a statement than a question then anything else, so Naruto didn't bother answering her. "Where's Shinseihiko-san?"

"I dumped him at the back of my room." Naruto replied carelessly. Turning to face her, he continued, "But really, Rukia, you should stop calling adding honorific suffixes at the end of his name. The old fox doesn't deserve those."

"And that's probably the reason why your bankai training didn't do well." Rukia commented in turn.

"I'm not intending to take up captain position anyway, so it wouldn't matter if I can do bankai or not." Shrugging slightly, Naruto fixed her a suspicious look. "And how would you know anyway, huh? Have the little missy been spying on my training?"

"I didn't!" Rukia looked appalled at the thought. Really, she was so easy to tease sometimes. Naruto bit back his laughter. "I- I just thought your reiatsu hasn't been improving lately, and you know, a shinigami's reiatsu changes after achieving bankai…"

Another voice interrupted them before Naruto could get another word in. "That's enough, Naruto, stop teasing Kuchiki so much. She's going to hate you one day." Ukitake Jyuushiro, captain of the thirteenth division sighed exasperatedly as he sat down beside his fourth seat on the porch. He then turned to face his blond subordinate. "Anyways, Naruto, about your current position…"

"Nuh-uh."

"But I haven't even-"

"No."

"Aww, come on, Uzumaki-"

"I don't want it, and I don't need it." Naruto huffed, crossing his arms. "Appreciate your concern, taichou, but I'm quite comfortable with my current position, thank you."

"Don't be so cold. You'll get a higher wages and several more benefits." Ukitake-taichou smiled at him in a last ditch effort to get him to agree. "Help your sickly taichou out once in a while…"

"And more paperwork." Naruto, sadly, remained resolute. "Besides, I don't want that post. He's the only one that deserved it; so I won't take it from him." He muttered the last end darkly. Silence descended upon the three of them at his words.

_Kaien_. That man had been quite close to both him and Rukia when he first entered the thirteenth division. Naruto greatly respected the guy, and treated him as something like an older brother he did not have. They trained and hanged out often- their bond was rather close. But Kaien had died when Naruto was out on a mission in the real world, along with his beloved wife. Naruto didn't quite forgive him for leaving before even saying goodbye.

Rukia cleared her throat to break the gloomy tension. "So, taichou, what brings you here? You didn't come just to join us in our idle chit-chat, did you?"

Their taichou clapped his hands together. "Oh! I forgot- Kuchiki, you've been assigned to a long-term mission in the real world at a place called Karakura Town or something. Apparently, they've regular fluctuations of high reiatsu, so be careful-"

"Taichou," Rukia cut in, her eyes narrowed, not even bothering to hear the rest as feeling of dread washed over her. "When must I leave?"

Her captain looked thoughtful for a moment, brows creased in deep thought. "Hmmm… Let's see… you have to collect the mission debrief and paperwork at twelve-"

"Wouldn't that make me super late by now?" Cursing slightly, Rukia jumped to her feet and dashed off, her heavy and hasty footsteps echoing throughout the hallways. Ukitake and Naruto exchanged looks of amusement.

With Rukia gone, Ukitake-taichou turned to his other subordinate. " Now, Naruto-kun, about your-"

"AHHH!" Naruto screamed in frustration, hands quickly covering his ears. "I'm not gonna listen to anymore of your whining! It's not working! No, it's not working _one bit_! I'll be excusing myself now taichou, and don't follow me!" Naruto too, stood up quickly and bolted into his room, sliding his door shut with a loud snap.

"To think…" Ukitake muttered to himself, slightly aghast. "They were so cute and polite when they first joined the squad…"

* * *

"Hey, fox. What's wrong with me?"

Shinseihiko cracked open one eye, to see his foolish mortal pacing up and down beside his cage in his mind-scape. Said mind-scape was as boring as usual, with its dull greasy walls and waterlogged floors. The sewer still glowed with an eerie light, and its multiple chambers were scattered randomly around, ready to trap and confine any intruders within its mind-boggling mazes. "What do you mean what's wrong? Are you referring to your stupidity that got us killed?"

"Give that a rest, will you? It's been more then sixty years already and you're still yapping away about _that_?" Naruto rolled his eyes. "Well, too bad for you, fox, but I've never once regretted my actions on that day."

"Obviously I _would_ be sore about it! Look at me! I'm _small_! I'm _cute_! I'm _fluffy_! Am I the only one who is seeing something devastatingly wrong about this?" Shinko screeched, his red fur bristling with anger. That particular fact was the only thing that had changed within the past few years, much to the disgust and total mortification of the fox.

Naruto grinned. "Why yes, of course you are." Shinko grumbled in annoyance. Naruto continued on with his goading. "But to think; that the almighty Kyuubi, most fearsome of the bijyuus, would be reduced to such a pitiful state… Oh, the shame…"

"If you continue on with your foolish blabbering, I'll stop loaning you my powers from here henceforth, and you shall be doomed to remain with only a shikai for the rest of your puny life here-"

"Aaah, but it's not like the times when we were still alive, Kyuubi." Naruto grinned. "Right now, you are my _zanpakuto_. If I, your master ordered you to, you'll have no choice but to comply, true?" Sobering up, Naruto regarded the fox seriously. "So what's the deal, fox? Why haven't I seen Kakashi-sensei and the rest of 'em yet?"

"Like you said, maybe they ended up in a different plane. I'm not too sure about that myself, idiot. It's my first time dying too, you know."

"Then, why only me? Why am I the only one who ended up in this world?"

"…Probably 'cuz you died along with me."

"You mean my jinchuuriki status?" Naruto chewed on that thought for a while. "But Gaara and Bee-"

"That Gaara kid had his bijyuu taken out of him forcibly, and then he was revived. That means when he dies the next time, he'll die as a normal shinobi. Bee… I don't know, maybe like the forth mizukage, he'd found a way to extract the bijyuu before dying? So as to create another jinchuuriki for the Cloud?" Shinko snorted as a new thought struck him. "Besides, as far as I know, you're the only jinchuuriki I know stupid enough to take your bijyuu along with your death. The rest either had their bijyuu extracted by the Akatsuki, or a seal master, to leave the bijyuu around for a new host."

"Well, sorry for being _stupid_." Naruto huffed. "And I'm _sure_ Konoha really _loves_ Jinchuurikis very, very much."

"Ooh, the sarcasm is thick." Shinko flicked his now bushy tails. "Don't worry about it too much. Right now, just concentrate on remaining close to the higher-ups for more information, but don't drag yourself too deep into their politics. I sense a storm brewing."

"That's what I've been doing for the past fifty years, you stupid fox." Naruto muttered. "Why don't you tell me something I don't know?"

"Steer clear from that Aizen guy. He reeks of bad blood."

"Aizen? That noob of a captain with the heavy set of glasses?" Naruto frowned. "Don't you mean Gin?"

"Looks can be deceiving, and I don't like the feeling I get when I'm near that guy. The same goes for that Captain-General, Yamamoto-whatnot as well. Gin is alright."

"Aizen, and the old man. I got it. Thanks, Shinko." Naruto placed his hands behind his head and prepared to leave his mind-scape.

"It's alright to obtain captain position, you know. It would be something close to becoming a Hokage anyway." Shinko said casually as he inspected his sharp claws. "The paperwork is just an excuse. You're more than qualified for the job, _and_ the paperwork that comes with it."

Naruto paused in his step and cocked his head to face the fox. "It's not the same. I only want to be Hokage to protect my precious people. And right now, they're only a select handful of them. Besides, Ukitake-taichou is already the captain of this division and all captain positions are filled. I'm not after the seat for the power, Shinko; it's for the people."

"So basically, you don't see those Shinigamis as something worth protecting." Shinko gave a fanged grin. "I didn't know that you were that kind of person."

"Something like that, yeah. I didn't say I was benevolent in the first place." Naruto absently agreed. "I can protect the ones I care for well on my own from my current standing, so there really isn't a need to advance further. And like I told you before; my loyalty lies with Konoha alone." Waving one arm nonchalantly in goodbye, Naruto disappeared from view. "I'll be seeing you again soon, fox. Ja ne."

"Foolish kit." Shinseihiko murmured to himself, his chest rumbling in amusement. "Ain't he a sentimentalist."

* * *

Author's Notes:

Ooooh, I bet the cheesiness and drama of it all must be killing you! Or maybe the fact that Naruto seemed so OOC! That's right, you must feel like ditching this story at this very moment! I'll probably receive flames from my passionate readers soon! -_Ahem_- Well, Naruto, he should be over 84-85 by now, along with the rest of the rookie 12. He's looking as young and handsome as ever, but there's still the fact that his mentality still had to grow up. And I'm guessing he must be feeling really homesick at the moment.

Large thanks to those who favourited, alerted and especially reviewed this story- truthfully, I wasn't expecting such a huge response from you guys- since it's only a chapter long.  
_T00STr00nG-_ Don't worry. I haven't really thought about it yet, but for the moment, this fic will be paringless. I also don't wish to include pairing, since 1. It'll deviate my story away from the main plot line- which does not concentrate on romance, 2. While I'll gain several supporters, I'll lose many as well, so let's just make it fair to the readers, and lastly 3. I suck at writing romance.  
_Rakugosha-_ Thanks for the review; I love the insight you have provided. I think this chapter had already covered mostly two-thirds of your questions. Sorry if you find the plot a bit too monotonous with the other crossovers out there, but I'll try to make the coming chapters a bit more interesting. I'm still going to stick close to Bleach canon though, but I'll _attempt _to give Naruto his own battles. As for the Sasuke thing- sorry, its a major plot spoiler so I'm not telling. （￣□￣；）I'll welcome guesses, though you might not receive a reply.

Shinseihiko- Divine Fire Fox. Shinko is a nickname.  
Kami- God  
Ja ne- Casual way of saying goodbye.

I don't have a beta, so please excuse me if you find any grammatical or typing errors. Send me a message and I'll correct the mistake asap!

This chapter already explained mostly everything, so if you still have any questions or confusions, feel free to leave a comment; I'll reply you in the next chapter, if your question does not risk plot spoilers.  
（＾ｖ＾）

Until next time,

**TenkuuBatsu**


	3. Perceptions in Real

_CHAPTER 3- Perceptions in Real

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_

The day started out pretty normal for one Shinigami named Kuchiki Rukia. After assisting Ichigo in his hunt for hollows the previous night, and scaring him out of his wits the next morning by suddenly- and violently- jumping out of his closet, she had tagged along with him to school to kill idle time.

She didn't have anything better to do after giving Ichigo her Shinigami powers anyway, and she had to lie low to avoid detection from Soul Society until she regained her powers- the stunt she had pulled that night was undoubtedly illegal by the Shinigami's standards. Luckily, they probably haven't caught on to anything since she was- in one way or another- still doing her job of exterminating the hollows.

Rukia knew that her luck will be running out soon, and she will eventually have to face severe punishment for her crime- one of the greatest dishonors a Kuchiki could ever bring to her house. Byakuya-nii-sama would be very displeased with her; he'd probably disown her before she could even step one foot into his house. His wrath would be one of the many things Rukia had dreaded facing. Another would be the looks of disappointment from Ukitake-taichou, Renji, and Naruto. _'Well, from Kiyone and Sentarou too,' _she admitted grudgingly.

It was now lunch break and Rukia's musings were cut short as Inoue burst into excited exclamations on the topic of her favourite dishes, which included sashimi, garlic spread, peanut butter, raw beef, and other ingredients Rukia didn't bother catching. Chad and Ichigo were both wincing at the thought of the final product of Inoue's creations. '_I guess, it'll be alright to stay like this… for now…_'Rukia thought with a small smile, closing her eyes in content.

She snapped them open she heard Inoue calling her name, though. "Ah, I'm sorry. What were you saying again, Inoue-san?" She blinked.

"I said, Kuchiki-san, what do you think of sandwiches with mustard, persimmons, mashed garlic, yogurt and pickled chilies for topping?" Orihime Inoue asked with an excited smile. In the background, the faces of the two boys already held a tinge of green in them. Ichigo in particular, looked like he was trying to gag back his puke, and Chad seemed reluctant to finish up his bento after having his mind filled with disturbing images of an inedible menu.

Rukia hoped that she had heard at least half of the ingredient list wrongly. "Uh, well, I think it's rather… mismatched…" That was probably the understatement of the century, but at least Rukia _did_ make an effort to try and be nice to the girl.

"Erm, sorry to interrupt, but is Kuchiki Rukia in this class?"

All thoughts of leaving a long, undetected, peaceful life in Karakura flew out from Rukia's head as her eyes widened almost comically at the too-familiar-for-comfort recognizable voice. Turing her head in the direction whereby the voice came from, she was met with a stock of bright yellow hair and deeply tanned skin.

The figure was leaning casually against the door-frame, his head poked curiously in as he scanned the room. Rukia felt her stomach drop as his gaze locked with hers, and recognition set into his cerulean blue eyes. Face brightening; the figure started making his way towards her, waving energetically as he did so.

Rukia groaned as her fears were now confirmed.

Uzumaki Naruto had found her.

* * *

Murmurs broke out amongst his classmates as the blond foreigner headed towards them. Most came from the female population, who were giggling excitedly at the unexpected outsider. Ichigo could distinctly pick out worlds like 'blond', 'good-looking', and 'striking'. He could reluctantly see why.

The guy was dressed casually in a horrendously orange t-shirt, which was mostly covered up by a half-zipped black hooded jacket, whose sleeves were pushed up to his elbows. He wore a pair of faded jeans and black sneakers, and a small backpack was slung nonchalantly over one shoulder. He had a lean frame, but his height wouldn't be considered by many as tall. Overall, what would be considered most striking would be his bright yellow locks which could rival Ichigo's own orange one. It stood up on its ends, messily framing his face, which currently held a large, goofy grin. He looked young; Ichigo estimated the foreigner to be around eighteen- only two years older then him.

Rukia abruptly stood up in her seat as soon as the foreigner got within hearing range. "You idiot! What are you doing here?" She yelled, face looking slightly shock and… apprehensive? Ichigo decided to keep the guy under close watch, if he could even garner such a reaction from the usually calm and collected Rukia. Besides, how does this guy know Rukia anyway? Maybe he had high spiritual power and the ability to see ghosts like him, and met her during one of her missions? Nah, Ichigo decided. That was too far-fetched a story to be true. He was probably over-thinking it.

"I'm hurt, Rukia! We haven't met for such a long time and that's how you choose to greet me?" The blond guy faked a look of anguish and wiped non-existent tears from his eyes. "Oh, the tragedy!"

Rukia rolled her eyes. "Cut it with the melodrama. We both know you're not here for that." Her eyes narrowed. "Why the sudden visit? Did something happen back there? I'm certain that my term in Karakura won't end for another eight months…"

"Nope, I just came to check up on you. Is that so wrong?" The guy gave a bright warm smile that sent several girls into various shades of blushes. Ichigo vaguely noted that though the guy obviously resembled a foreigner- probably from America, his master over the Japanese language was impeccable. "I know you missed me too. It's alright to admit things like this once in a while." He winked mischievously at her. That action sent two or three girls swooning into oblivion.

Rukia sighed heavily, as though she had anticipated his reply. Rubbing her temples with one hand, she grabbed the foreigner's wrist with another and hauled him back towards the door. "Let's take this up to the roof. You're attracting too much attention here."

The 'American' blinked in confusion, but followed her obediently, nonetheless. "Am I?"

* * *

"Hey, hey, hey. What was that about attracting attention?" Rukia gave a small exasperated sigh as Naruto rounded up on her the moment they entered the roof. "I'd already toned down with the orange and got rid of the whisker-marks on my gigai."

"You look foreign. End of story. And will you please don't do such reckless things anymore! You might jeopardize the mission! Coming into contact with me for no apparent reason… Arrgh, I can't believe you!"

"Alright little missy, chill." Naruto held out his hands in an attempt to placate her. "The mission will turn out fine. I'll just go down and tell everyone that I'm your childhood friend from America or something. Besides, that's where I'm heading to anyways; I just got some time to spare and decided to drop by."

"Okay- we'll go with that story of yours. I don't want to risk using the memory modifier anyway." Rukia calmed down. It seemed that Naruto didn't know what had actually happened to her yet. That was good. He will be leaving soon; she'd only have to keep up with this facade for a short while. "But I'm quite doubtful that the entire class will buy it."

"Then, that's where I'll put my looks to good use." Naruto smiled sinisterly, rubbing his chin at the thought. "Heh. These foolish mortals will never be able to resist my charms…"

'_Ichigo definitely won't buy that, but I'll somehow manage to get him to play along until I explain the full situation…' _Rukia turned and hastened to walk off to tell Ichigo about her current predicament, but Naruto caught her before she even managed to walk past ten steps.

"Rukia." Naruto called, looking down at her with suspicious eyes. "Is it just me, or is your reiatsu extremely low? Even if you're in a gigai, this level is a bit too exaggerated, don't you think?"

"...You caught me." Rukia sighed, displaying a cool facade on the outside. Mentally, her brain went into overdrive, trying to cook up a believable story so as to prolong being found out, and sentenced to horrible punishment. She was certain Naruto wouldn't take her side. Sure, they were almost as close as siblings, but he was still her superior, and is loyal to Ukitake-taichou. Ukitake-taichou was a kind soul, but he wouldn't be able to let a crime of this magnitude slide over so easily. "Actually, I've had a slight problem with this mission…"

"Problem?"

"Yeah, well, there's this kid, Kurosaki Ichigo, and he's been able to see ghosts. Embarrassingly enough, he spotted me while I was on patrol. I had no choice; I explained to the gist of the duties of a shinigami." Rukia began explaining in a hurried tone. "I didn't tell him exact details of our Soul Society; I swear!" She added hastily as Naruto's brows started to crease.

Humming slightly, more to himself then to anyone else, Naruto nodded for her to continue.

"It was then that I realized that his reiatsu was so strong, people near him are starting to get 'induced' by it and are starting to become spiritually aware as well. I couldn't allow it to spread further, so I decided to come to this school to keep an eye on him and his friends- Inoue Orihime and Yasutora Sado." Rukia paused. "I had thus requested this specially modified gigai from Urahara Kisuke to be made for the sole purpose of hiding my reiatsu from Ichigo's friends, so that I can observe them more closely. It wouldn't do to be found suspicious by the ones you're monitoring."

"…I see…A human, huh… Kurosaki… Urahara…Tch. This is going to be a little troublesome." Naruto closed his eyes and chewed his bottom lip, his face thoughtful. Rukia held her breath, waiting nervously for Naruto to give his verdict. Would Naruto see through her lies? Was her story too hastily planned?

"This mission is probably beyond the capability of an unranked officer to handle." Naruto began, reopening his eyes, which now held a sharp, shrewd look in them. He reached one hand into his pocket, probably to dig out his phone. "I'll request for backups from the taichou-"

"No need! I'll deal with this setback myself. I already have everything under control. Please let me prove myself capable, Uzumaki-san!" Rukia bowed down low, hiding her grimacing face. _'Sorry for lying to you, Uzumaki-san, but I can't afford to screw this up more then I already have. But seriously, thank kami he's stupid! I'm safe... for the moment anyways.' _

Naruto paused for a moment, as though he was about to disagree and argue back, but soon broke out into chuckles at her 'submissive' form. "Geez, I can't believe I'm actually doing this. Alright Rukia- I won't tell anyone about this, so stop bowing down to me. It makes me feel uncomfortable." Rukia complied quickly and raised her head, only to catch his piercing gaze. "You have a shikai, so you should be able to handle a mission of this level. But if anything crops out that are too big for you to chew, then I want you to call me up immediately, okay? I'll be there in a jiffy. You got my number, right?"

Rukia's voice got caught in her throat as they locked gazes with each other, and she could only manage a stiff nod in reply. Chills were sent down her spine, and she found herself transfixed to his gaze, unable to move her body. Naruto's eyes crinkled up as he shot her a grin, and he ruffled her hair slightly before walking towards the exit door. "Well, let's get this mess sorted out as quickly as possible, shall we? After all, I have a plane to America to catch at five."

Rukia narrowed her eyes at her superior's disappearing back, hair disheveled and slightly shaken. _'W-What was that? At that instant, when my eyes met his… I felt like he'd seen through all my lies with a single glance…like he knew that I was guilty…'_ Shaking her head at the ridiculous notion, Rukia schooled her face into her usual one of indifference, and hurried after the Uzumaki.

She now knew why Naruto had managed to climb his way up to achieve his position of fourth seat. He had a sharp mind, quick wits, and leadership qualities, which were something many did not expect him to have. It also didn't hurt that he had guts, and an extremely thick skin to go along with it. Obtaining such a ranking wouldn't be an easy feat for many ordinary shinigami, for it required earning both the trust of the captain, as well as the required skills to attain it. Naruto had, however, grasped it within the first few years upon entering this division.

This had placed many misgivings in the minds of many Shinigamis of the thirteenth division; their captain and lieutenant had soft hearts in the first place, and many thought that the Uzumaki had charmed his way to the top. But disobeying him would mean that they are indirectly rebutting the orders of their captain, so they buried down their protests for the most part.

However, that didn't stop dark gossips and rumors from being spread around Seireitei. Rukia didn't know if Naruto had heard of the buzz surrounding him, but if he did, he didn't show any indication of wanting to retaliate against them. The rumors began to lessen a lot more soon after, especially since to the surprise of many, he'd stop climbing up further beyond the forth position.

Rukia, in turn, refrained from stereotyping the teen with accordance to the rumors. She had stroked up a small conversation with him one day, and they had become friends, along with Kaien. Those brief instances whereby they had trained together were probably one of the best few moments of her life. What she had once thought as an aloof, distant boy had changed into something else. He was easy-going but ill-mannered, and cracked jokes and made snide remarks every now and then.

It was all gone after Kaien had died, and Naruto had withdrawn from everyone else again but Ukitake-taichou, throwing himself into vigorous training. He'd probably regretted not being present to even give Kaien a proper send-off, but Rukia felt that if anyone had to be blamed, it should have been herself instead; she was present at the scene, and yet she couldn't even save him. Naruto had emerged, slightly better, two or three years later, but he had still kept a slight distance between everyone and himself- even Ukitake-taichou.

Rukia wouldn't be as arrogant to call their relationship as 'close' before, but it certainly wasn't anything but _now_. There had always seemed to be a strain separating the blond from everyone else. He behaved as though he was holding back something from them, and never participated in group parties or events, unless they are within the context of a mission. Often had Rukia caught the blond with a distant, longing look in his eyes whenever he gazed into the skies, lost in his thoughts. She wondered if this was related to his frequent, long walks down Rukongai.

But Rukia knew; Naruto displayed himself as a goofy, good-for-nothing wimp who couldn't memorize Kidou chants to save his life. But underneath his goofy facade, he was dependable, strong-willed, earnest and determined, once he had set his mind on something, that is. Many could not see that about him, or maybe they just chose not to. He might be mocked internally by others, but he'd held himself firm against their suspicions, until they were forced to accept him, reluctantly or no. That was something to be applauded for, and Rukia knew that Ukitake-taichou had recognized that aspect of the blond as well.

Maybe she should join Ukitake-taichou in persuading the blond to take up the mantle of lieutenant when she gets back…

* * *

"Rukia. Oi, Rukia. RUKIA!" Ichigo snapped his fingers at the shinigami's face, whose glazed over eyes refocused at the disturbance, finally snapped out of her musings. Ichigo proceeded out round her over with a bite of impatience to his voice. "Just who is that guy? Do Shinigamis even have humans as their childhood friends in the first place? You've been keeping mum about this since lunch break, but now that school is finally over, I want to hear a full explanation about that guy!"

Rukia let out a long suffering sigh. "Don't be so childish, Ichigo. Besides, what's wrong with keeping human childhood friends?" She had figured that since her lie which she was forced to tell had covered up Ichigo as well, there wasn't an urgent need for the latter to really know that there are more Shinigamis around. He was still a human after all, and secrets pertaining to Soul Society should be kept to a minimum around him. As long as Ichigo didn't enter his soul form, Rukia figured that she would be fine.

Ichigo gave her a blank stare. "No, I can list _numerous_ reasons as to why it's so wrong."

"Why don't you mind your own business for once? It doesn't concern you." She huffed. Adjusting her schoolbag across her back to a more comfortable position, Rukia proceeded to shoot him a sharp glare. "You should be thinking more practical thoughts, like the next few methods you could use to find and dispatch hollows. Besides, you'll probably not meet him again, since he'll be flying back to America anytime soon-"

"Oh, I see. But you know, Rukia- doesn't the figure by the gate look _oh-so-familiar_?"

Rukia was already long gone from Ichigo's side and rushing forwards with hands outstretched, ready to throttle the same foreigner who had dropped by their classroom during lunch break. Said foreigner had a nervous smile on his face and legs slightly bent, as though unsure on whether he should be warmly receiving the furious and all-out-for-his-blood Rukia, or if he should start running to save his own skin.

Too bad for him, he took too long to decide on his choice of actions, and Rukia now had his neck gripped firmly between her hands and proceeded to throttle the life out of him.

"What are you still doing here, you big imbecile?" Rukia yelled furiously, her voice rising an octave higher above her usual one. "Don't you have a plane to catch? Don't go wasting mission funds away like that; we hard-working people paid for them by deducting a portion of our monthly wages!"

"Gerroff meee….!" The poor bloke chocked out as Ichigo hurriedly made his way over. "I… need… air…" He gasped pathetically, arms flailing around wildly in an attempt to loosen the vice-like grip around his neck.

Ichigo rolled his eyes. This was going to take awhile.

* * *

Eye twitching, Ichigo irritably wondered how he'd got himself into this mess. For in front of him sat Rukia and the foreigner, who were still bickering loudly with each other. In his house, in his room, and _on his bed._ Seriously, some people just have no respect for their surroundings! Not even the slightest sense of decency!

"And? Can you start explaining to me now how you manage to get yourself a 'childhood friend' _now_?" Ichigo huffed, crossing his arms in annoyance. He'd might as well make good use of his time now that his peace has been disturbed and homework long forgotten. Besides, he'd been left curious and hungry for answers since four hours ago.

"Very well." The foreigner spoke up with a sage-like tone in his voice. "Since Ichigo-chan has kindly offered his generous hospitality to us, I'm afraid it's only right that I should impart this information on the young one as my gift of gratitude."

Ichigo sweat-dropped at the sudden change of behavior. _'Is that guy mocking me?' _But he could not help up but let his feelings of excitement and anticipation rise up all the same. Finally, at long last, he was going to receive some answers.

"Rukia."

"Yessir."

Ichigo's high spirits was dampened slightly as Rukia pulled out an extremely familiar drawing sketchpad. Flipping the cover open, it revealed two horrendously drawn bunny-like figures, one orange and yellow and the other black and blue, each vaguely similar to the foreigner and Rukia respectively. "Can we _please _proceed on with the story _without_ your godforsaken crayon scribbles for once?" Ichigo groaned. "I'm begging you here..."

"Hey! Did you just diss Chappy?" Rukia's eyes flashed dangerously.

"Screw Chappy!" The foreigner cried, looking just as mutinous as the former. "Did you just diss the ORANGE?"

'_Aaah, what would I give to have __normal __people entering into my life…'_ Ichigo thought drearily. "Don't diss the orange and Chappy. Okay, okay, I got it." He held up his hands in surrender.

Looking satisfied, the foreigner cleared his throat, and adopted his sage-like geezer tone again. "You see, little Ichigo-chan, a long, long time ago, when I was still a young, fickle-minded lad like what you are today-"

Ichigo's vein on his forehead throbbed violently at the jabs intended for him, but he kept quiet nonetheless since they had finally got the story going.

"-I was often bullied and knocked around since I could see the wandering spirits of the dead. Before long, I found myself in an orphanage, cold, alone, and lonely without friends and family, who had all abandoned me out of fear. It was very, very sad -" Here, the foreigner stopped to blow his nose on a piece of tissue which was offered kindly from Rukia.

"-Then, one fine majestic day, I met Rukia, who had dropped by into town to carry out her shinigami duties. We talked, and soon, we became fast friends. From then onwards, we would always catch up with each other whenever she's in town. The end." The foreigner smiled mischievously. "And that's that, Ichigo-chan."

"Seriously? No, I mean, _seriously_?" Ichigo muttered in disbelief. Was his prediction really that accurate? His musings were cut short by the sounds of several wet sneezes being given off. Turning his head, Ichigo saw that the source of the noise had came from Rukia- who was drying off her nose with several pieces for tissue paper.

"That story was really, really touching..." The shinigami wept shamelessly. "I couldn't help myself; my tears just keep on falling…" She blew her nose loudly again.

"Why the hell are _you_ crying? Aren't you supposed to have heard his sob story before?" Ichigo yelled. He jabbed his index figure at the grinning blond. "Oi oi oi, I'm staring to doubt your story now. Is it the truth or was everything you told me all a hoax?"

"Saa, who knows?" The blond's fox like grin grew wider. "Have patience, young one. And all shall be revealed in due time." To Ichigo's great annoyance, the blond had adopted his 'geezer voice' once more. "Seeing as I have to bid thee farewell so as to catch my flight soon, I shall impart to you, young foolish one, a final piece of advice. 'Look underneath the underneath, and the truth shall be revealed to thee.'" The blond quoted, before heading towards the door.

"Stop sounding like my gramps already! What's with that 'young one' crap, you're only a year or two older than me!" Ichigo yelled.

He only received a wink in reply. Straightening his jacket, the foreigner teasingly blew a flying kiss towards him, much to Ichigo's chagrin. "I only have one more thing to say before I take my leave. If you ever hurt Rukia and get her into trouble, I'll be sure to hunt you down, and burn down every part of your body until you resemble a pile of black goo." He paused, and then added an afterthought, "Except for your hair, though. Lucky for your hair, I have a great affection for that particular color. Tudos, kiddo. May we never meet again."

Ichigo twitched, and willed with all his might for the other to just _get the hell out_ of his house. A sudden thought struck him before the foreigner completely left, though. "Hey, wait, you! You didn't tell me your name yet!"

Raising one eyebrow in consideration, the foreigner looked thoughtful for a moment; he was most likely debating internally on whether he should disclose his name to Ichigo or not. At last, after sharing a meaningful glance with Rukia, he grudgingly gave out his name. "I'm Momochi Zabuza. I'm half-Japanese, so I got that name from my father."

_Momochi Zabuza_… that name did sound vaguely familiar to Ichigo. "Are you related to the Momochi down fourth street or something? 'Cause I swear there was another Momochi Zabuza guy living there too."

'Zabuza's' eyes narrowed at Ichigo's comment. "Ichigo-chan. Was what you just said true?"

* * *

Author's Notes:

Okay, I'll admit it. I rushed through Rukia's monologues of flashback and lies since they were too boring to type. _Gomenasai_. m(_ _)m You can start sending in your complains now. Go on, scream about the lameness, or OOCness, or clicheness, or horrible grammar, or just plain stupidity of this chapter.

I'll also confess that this chapter is more of a filler then anything else- I just wanted Ichigo to meet up with Naruto; it's crucial, I guess. Naruto is as irritating as hell as usual, but I'm sure Ichigo can cope with that; he'd survive Urahara and Isshin after all. And yes, it takes place somewhere between episodes 1-20. I am also aware of the fact that Naruto's sob story didn't completely cover and explain his conversations with Rukia, but he wasn't making much of an effort to hide everything anyway; just to provide Ichigo with enough information to chew on. By the time Ichigo realized he'd been duped, Naruto would've probably been long gone, and the latter wasn't planning on meeting the other for the rest of his life. If only he knew...

And *_gasp*_, since when did Naruto turn into a bishonen? I don't know myself, but I'm guessing since Papa Yondaime is one, Naruto-who clearly has his genes and looks- should be one as well.

Your favorites, alerts and reviews are greatly appreciated. Though I might not reply them, please know that I have read every single one of them with much anticipation.  
_Morcalivan7_- Thanks for the input. I suppose by right, most, if not all of the shinobi would be probably sent down to hell. To address your worries, lets just say that I have my own ideas on how to cross both planes. And alright, I'll admit that I plan to have the rest of the gang appear sometime later, but not anytime soon though; this story will be Naruto-centric for a while.

If you have any queries, or spot any mistakes, you can leave behind a comment; I'll reply you in the next chapter- provided that disclosure of plot spoilers is not risked.  
∩( ・ω・)∩

Until next time,

**TenkuuBatsu**


	4. Concoctions and Conceptions

_CHAPTER 4- Concoctions and Conceptions

* * *

_

"Hey kit. Was it really alright to let that Rukia girl go?" Shinko rumbled, fixing one eye at the once-again pacing blond in front of him. "Soul Society won't let her go off so easily once they've found out what she had done. Her end is unavoidable."

"I know that, _baka kitsune_." Naruto rolled his eyes, and muttered a string of curses darkly under his breath. "Still, I can't believe she was so foolish to give up her powers to a mortal boy- a stupid one at that. Arrgh, forget me; not even Ukitake-taichou will be able to save her now!" Naruto ruffled up his hair in frustration at the current situation.

"I took my eyes off her for one minute and look at what she'd got herself into!" Naruto ranted. "Not reporting now will only prolong the inevitable; the higher-ups are bound to realize what she had done sooner or later!"

"And then another one of your precious people will be taken away from you." Shinko said, tails swishing carelessly behind him.

"Not if I can help it." Naruto rebutted angrily. "I'll think of something when the time comes. I'm just never one who plans things thoroughly before executing them in the first place. That'll be Shikamaru, not me."

"That's because your brain doesn't come with the capability of doing so." Shinko scoffed.

"Shinko, if you don't have anything nice or useful to say, then I'd suggest you'd be better off keeping your yap shut."Naruto intoned dryly.

Shinko roared. "You insolent brat! How dare you tell me, the greatest of all foxes, the mightiest of the bijyuu, to shut up-"

"You forgot 'the cutest and fluffiest of all cute and fluffy things known to mankind'." Naruto added absently.

"Yeah, that as well." Shinko paused. "No, wait, that's wrong! I take that back! I'm not fluffy!"

"No, you're just hairy." Naruto agreed. Shinko let loose a snarl of displeasure. Sobering up, Naruto continued, "Another issue, though, would be Zabuza…"

"He's now leading a new, carefree life. Well, good for him." Shinko closed his eyes in boredom. "He got reincarnated without you knowing it. Big deal."

"To think that he'd ended up with the exact same name. At least he looks much happier in his new life, in any case." Naruto mused. "But we're missing the point. Kyuubi, what if-"

"You had missed your friends and they'd reincarnated themselves without you?" Shinko guessed. Naruto gave an anxious nod in return, proving the Kyuubi's deduction correct. "Then that's too bad, I guess."

"That'll be horrible!" Naruto gasped. "They wouldn't do that! How am I going to fulfill my promise to them then?"

"You can't expect everything in life to go smoothly as you like it to, foolish boy." Shinko snorted. "That wouldn't occur unless miracles happen. Maybe you should reincarnate as well. You've been waiting for a very long time already."

"Sixty-seven years isn't _that_ long. That old geezer, Yamamoto is over two thousand." Naruto defended himself. "And even if it is, I'm not gonna give up on them _now_."

"I don't know what drives you on, kit. But you'd better just face reality. We have absolutely no news on them, even after so many years of investigation. They might have ended up in a different afterlife, sent down to hell, or they could've been reincarnated for a long time already. What you're running on now is just false hope."

"Then false hope it may be. But you know, Kyuubi," Naruto gave the red fox a roguish grin, his eyes shining with resolve. "If miracles don't happen, then I'll only have to _create_ them myself."

"...You're planning on going illegal." Shinko stated, a little shocked.

Naruto hadn't bothered replying- he exited his mind-scape, disappearing from view.

"I'll be looking forward in seeing what you're devising up, Uzumaki Naruto." Shinko chuckled in amusement. That brat had always been a vat of surprises since he was young.

* * *

Rukia had arrived back into Seireitei the following week- too fast for Naruto to even construct a proper plan. She was forcefully bound down by reiatsu absorbing seals, and placed behind heavily locked bars as her punishment was decided by Central 46 Chambers, Chuuoujyurokushitsu. Like what Shinko had predicted, Rukia's punishment was inescapable, and it had finally descended, fast and swift.

Naruto had been there, watching her from the top of one the numerous gold-tiled rooftops, as she was professionally marched into captive by none other then the captain of the sixth division, Kuchiki Byakuya and his lieutenant, Abarai Renji. Stripped down to nothing but a simple white yukata, Rukia looked unusually fragile next to the large and imposing Byakuya and Renji. Her pale complexion and small frame didn't help her any.

Naruto furrowed his brows, thoughtful. Was it really that necessary, to have a captain and his lieutenant enter the real world just for a simple retrieval mission? Especially the pair who were very close to her? The workings of Seireitei can sometimes be very cruel, Naruto decided._ 'Either that, or there's foul play from behind the scenes...'_

He let out a thoughtful hum at the sudden idea. It was true- the method used to capture and detain her was one reserved for highly dangerous escapees. Yet Naruto could not even imagine who would be able to influence the decisions and workings of the Chuuoujyurokushitsu so easily and speedily. Ever since he'd learned of Central 46 Chambers' existence in the Shinigami Academy, Naruto realized that the Shinigami's system of judgment was typically very one-sided and unfair to the convicts, who were unable to fight back against their punishment. Nonetheless, Naruto had kept his mouth firmly shut on his take on the subject though; he'd viewed himself as simply a spectator to the Shinigami's politics and affairs after all.

But the current situation wouldn't allow him to play the role of a simple spectator any longer.

As far as he knew, there was nothing to gain from picking on Rukia. She was from Rukongai, and though she was affiliated with the nobles, she wasn't even the heir nor successor of the Kuchiki clan. In terms of strength, Rukia was unranked, and wasn't even close to mastering her shinkai, forget attaining bankai. Lastly, Rukia's missions usually revolve around patrol duty and performing soul burials- not dangerous enough for hollows or Shinigamis to attempt to extract revenge over her. To put it simply, no idiot would be after Rukia for benefits unless said benefits involved allowing Byakuya's eternal wrath to befall upon them.

Naruto was feeling uneasy about the current situation, yet he couldn't exactly identify what was wrong with it.

Just then, Rukia and glanced up, and caught his eye. Breaking eye contact, Naruto immediately turned around and disappeared away from the site with quick, successively carried out shunpo. He didn't turn backwards, even for a second, for his mind was already running with numerous ideas on how he could get her out of this mess, which it had been doing for the past few days.

He had considered breakout and kidnapping, mass murderer, total brainwashing, threatening of the General-Captain and other whatnot, but all of them were obviously blunt and would definitely point back to him; not to mention that they were as ridiculous as hell, and would require much effort on his part to pull it off. And he couldn't risk being fired from his post yet.

Now was one of the many times when he wished that he had his friends to back him up. Shikamaru's intellect with come in handy for situations like this- Naruto had always been a 'deal with it when the situation arises' person. Which was exactly what he was planning to do now; going with the flow, until an opening to take advantage of was spotted. For the moment, he would report to Ukitake-taichou; the taichou might be willing to help…

'_I'll find a way to save you, Rukia. Just hang in there for the moment.'

* * *

_

"Heh. I was wondering when you'd pay me a visit." Rukia chuckled as the figure made its presence known from behind her, with the sudden flare of his reiatsu. "You were there, watching me on the day I was brought back." She frowned disapprovingly. "And you really shouldn't be sneaking into other people's divisions. Byakuya-nii-sama wouldn't be pleased."

"You know, Rukia. I thought that you'll be bright enough to not get yourselves caught up with human affairs. Apparently, your training wasn't that thorough. Didn't you ever regret it? Giving that boy your power?" Naruto asked, tone flat as he waved off her nagging, leaning casually against the wall with his arms crossed. His eyes were hard, its piercing stare fixed on the other.

"I can't say I didn't at first, but now?" Smiling ruefully, Rukia shook her head. "No, Uzumaki-san. I don't regret, nor resent the actions I took on that day. I will accept my punishment without complaint."

"Was he really that worth it, Rukia?" Naruto asked, his voice softening slightly. "That you would even leave me and Ukitake-taichou behind?"

"Yes." Rukia did not hesitate to answer. "I'm sorry. I've been thinking about it since that day. You're all precious to me as well. You, Ukitake-taichou, Renji… even Byakuya-nii-sama. But Kurosaki Ichigo… He's one of a kind, after all."

To Rukia's surprise, Naruto's face cracked into a grin. "Alright, I'll accept that resolve of yours. You know, they say good things will happen to those with determination." Saying so, Naruto picked himself up and headed towards the door. "I'll be seeing you later. Things are going to get hectic soon, with all the preparations that have to be done."

Rukia's stomach dropped at those words. "Wait! You don't mean to say that…" Naruto's grin only grew wilder in excitement, confirming Rukia's train of thoughts. Seeing the determination behind his eyes, Rukia knew that any words of persuasion to get whatever nonsensical thoughts out from his head would fall onto deaf ears. Maybe that was the reason why Ukitake-taichou had agreed along with the blond.

That didn't stop her from trying, nonetheless. "Stop it! That's too risky, not to mention foolish! Even with Ukitake-taichou's help-"

"I wasn't able to do anything when Kaien died." Naruto interrupted flatly. "So I sure hell won't stand back and watch them take you away from me as well."

"B-But that's just-"

"Our cute subordinate has dug herself into deep trouble. It's only the job of her higher-ups to pull her out from the mess she had made, right?" Naruto cut her off, flashing a bright smile and a thumbs-up sign. "The taichou and I will see you though this predicament, Rukia, so don't worry too much about it. Keep this quiet from Byakuya and everyone else, got that?"

"You knew." Rukia murmured. "You knew right from the start about what I had done when you saw me on that day you dropped by in the Human World, but you didn't report it to anyone. Why?"

"Do I need a reason for helping my friend out?" Naruto replied, his quirky smirk still in place. With that, he was gone from sight before Rukia could inject another word in.

"Please don't overstrain yourselves, Uzumaki-san… Ukitake-taichou…" Rukia muttered into her now empty cell, biting down on her bottom lip in anxiety.

* * *

Like every other ordinary morning, Naruto was currently taking one of his usual walks down Rukongai, his eyes sharply scanning the people who loitered around the streets around him, and his heart clenched tightly with hopefulness and slight desperation of catching a familiar face. The walks had became a habit, and a daily routine, but every visit never failed to give rise to a feeling of anxiety and expectancy inside him, which had always turned into disappointment and dejection at the end of the day.

He was dressed in commoner's garb as per usual- a faded blue yukata with white trimmings around the edges, wrapped in place by a dark blue stripped obi and straw sandals, forgoing the tabi socks. Shinseihiko was tucked loosely into his obi, and it swayed slightly with every step Naruto took. Most people in Rukongai don't often take kindly to Shinigamis, hence the disguise.

Naruto frowned as he inspected his garb once again for any giveaways. There were none. The necklace he had worn from Tsunade-baa-chan would have been visibly dangling from his neck, its gemstone shining brightly under the morning rays, but sadly- along with his headband, it didn't follow him to the afterlife.

He was currently in the first street of West Rukongai, Junrinan. There had seemed to be a commotion earlier, most probably a brawl, if the large craters of the ground and dried puddles of blood caking the once-polished floor were of any indication. _'Wait a minute…'_ Naruto's eyes narrowed at the damage done. It was too close to the Hakutoumon- the White Road Gate- to his liking, and no ordinary soul would be able to wreck such large devastation.

"Hey, ossan! What happened here? Did the townsfolk decide to riot against the Shinigamis last night?" Naruto called out to the nearby street vendor, who was just opening his store up in wait for the morning crowd.

"You wish, kid! Well, I supposed most of them have been considering it, but they've neither the guts nor means to carry though with that. But I'm surprised you don't know, kid. Everyone was making a big hoo-hah about it yesterday." The vendor shot Naruto a skeptical look as he shook his head, but continued talking nonetheless. "Some Shinigami punk kid and with his friends tried to forcefully enter Seireitei. Jidanbou stopped him, of course, but you know what happened?"

"What?" Naruto asked, head buzzing at the news. A Shinigami... attacking the gatekeeper?

The vendor leaned in, apparently eager to share his gossip. "Jidanbou was defeated by that Shinigami! All of us were surprised big time, I tell ya! But before he got into Seireitei though, another Shinigami- a captain, judging from his haori- intercepted them and pushed them back out. Things got uglier then before, and damn well rowdy too. Jidanbou's arm was severed in the process, and kami- it was bloody- but thank goodness that girl was able to patch him up really quickly. They're staying with the village chief now. "

Dread weighed down on Naruto's stomach uncomfortably. "Ossan... Those kids… can you describe them for me?"

* * *

"Hey, isn't that Zabuza?"

Naruto felt like face-palming himself after catching sight of the all-too familiar face of Kurosaki Ichigo, but refrained from carrying though with his thoughts. The latter was dressed in a standard Shinigami garb, but that orange hair and stupid sounding voice was all too unmistakable. Besides, only that idiot would know him by the name of Zabuza. _'More like, he actually still believes that load of bullshit I told him?'_ Naruto thought with incredulity.

Ichigo's voice rang out loud and clear as Naruto made his way over. He was, apparently, trying to get his friends to recognize Naruto as well. "Zabuza… you know, the foreign guy from America who came in during lunch break a few weeks back? Rukia's friend…Don't you guys remember him?"

'_Well, things just couldn't have gotten worse._' Naruto thought dryly. He already had his hands full and busy with trying to think up feasible solutions for Rukia's plight, Sentaro and Kiyone had just dumped another huge load of paperwork on him yesterday, and he still had trainings and missions that have to be tended to! Now he had to deal with invading humans! As a Shinigami, he couldn't possibly let these Ryoka enter Seireitei as they damn well please!

'_Stupid humans, meddling with our affairs… What, you think Ukitake-taichou and I aren't good enough to save Rukia by ourselves?'_ Naruto thought foully. He knew that he was being unfair, and Ichigo and his pals had came because they genuinely wanted to help Rukia, but still, it was rather insulting on his part. _'Keh. Sorry, but I won't need help from you weaklings.' _He paused in his thoughts._ 'Oh yeah, that guy owed me something.'_

"Yo, Zabuza." Ichigo greeted as Naruto finally reached the group. "What are you doing here-oof!"

Ichigo never did manage to finish his sentence as Naruto swung his arm back and socked him straight in the check with a fist, sending the other flying backwards. Several of his group members let out cries of shock and concern. Rubbing his now-bruised face and grimacing at the pain, Ichigo was quick to pick himself back up in a few seconds. "You bastard! Why'd you hit me for?"

"I told you, didn't I? That if you'd ever let anything horrible befall on Rukia, I'd burn you to a crisp." Naruto replied coolly, eyes flashing in anger as he clenched and unclenched his fists in an effort to control his rising temper. "Now look at what you did! Rukia's in jail, and sentenced for execution in a few more days, no thanks to you! Be thankful that I'm letting you off with just a punch today!" Naruto snarled, grabbing Ichigo around the collar of his robes, hauling the latter up to his feet. The other had the decency to flinch as Naruto's harsh words struck him hard.

"I know that." Ichigo admitted grudgingly. "That's why I'm here today. I'm not planning on making Rukia suffer my punishment. I'll pay for my own wrongdoings Zabuza, so I swear; I'll definitely save Rukia-"

"Don't kid yourself. Even captains can't full off such a feat. What can you, a mere Shinigami representative hope to accomplish?" Naruto cut in, eyes accusing, but he released the other all the same. "So you defeated Jidanbou. Big deal. That taichou defeated the both of you without even baiting an eyelid, didn't he?"

Ichigo's eyes narrowed at Naruto's reproving tone. "I don't know how strong these captains of yours are, but that doesn't matter! I'll just have to beat up anyone who stands in my way!"

"Nice speech, but that ain't gonna get you anywhere." Naruto snorted. "Unless you have the bark to back your bite up, I'd suggest that you leave Soul Society and return to living your normal mundane human lives this instant-"

" You think I came here without any skills whatsoever? I trained under that insane twit Urahara for ten long grueling days!" Ichigo retorted forcefully. "Besides, I came here even after knowing that there would be people stronger then me, and I'm prepared to beat the snot out of them nonetheless!"

His eyes shone intensely with determination, one so similar to Naruto's own. With a jolt, Naruto had a sudden realization. _'That's right. This boy… and his friends… I might not necessarily need their help, but I can use them.'_ He gave a sudden smirk. "Alright, I'll be holding you true to your word then. I'll be expecting a lot more from you in the future… Strawberry-boy."

Ichigo's eyes twitched at the sudden change in attitude and even more so at the nickname. He had finally seemed to remember that he'd hated the other's attitude, but looked thankful as the other seemed to regain his usual composure, and the tension that was rising high before dissipating away. "Goddammit… what's wrong with you people? How many times do I have to tell you that the _ichi_'s from 'one' and _go_ from 'guardian'?"

"Language, Strawberry." Naruto chastised, ignoring Ichigo's small noise of frustration. "And while you're at it, why not introduce me to your buddies?"

"Why don't you tell me what you're doing here first?" Ichigo shot back, seemingly dissatisfied about being bossed around and the lack of information about Naruto. "I thought you were human? And what's with those weird markings on your cheeks? How'd-"

Naruto stuck up one finger to pause Ichigo's rapid fire of questions. It was time to throw the other off yet again. "First off, you were wrong from the start. Did I ever say that I was a human in the first place?"

Ichigo spluttered. "B-But you lived in an orphanage! You played with kids!"

"True, but that was from the time when I was still living. I died somewhere along the way though, and I ended up as a plus soul, because I refused to go to Soul Society. Actually, one of the main reasons why Rukia kept visiting me was because she was trying to perform Konsou on me." Naruto chuckled. "Well, then I found out about your recent failure and had a passing Shinigami send me here. I was about to save Rukia myself, if I hadn't chanced upon you here."

"But my entire class could see you!" Ichigo weakly protested. "And that doesn't explain the markings!"

"Foolish boy." Naruto snorted. "Obviously, I was in a gigai at that time- Rukia had loaned me one. It hid the markings. I always had these whisker marks since the day I was born; it must've been a birth defect, I can't seem to remember."

Ichigo looked dazed, his eyes glassy from the sudden influx of information. "… I see…Well, you could join our group if you like-"

"Sorry, but I already have my own plans with regards to saving Rukia." Naruto replied. He jabbed a thumb over to the group standing slightly behind him. They were watching him carefully and listening into the conversation intently, but not saying anything since apparently, he had gained Ichigo's reluctant trust. "Who are these guys, anyway?"

"Okay, I'll go from the left. That's Orihime Inoue, Ishida Uyruu, and Yasutora Sado." Ichigo introduced. "And the cat's Yoruichi." He added as an afterthought.

"Yoruichi… hmm… I think I heard that name somewhere before…" Naruto muttered, brows furrowed as he tried to recall back. It was futile, and he gave up on it after a minute, deciding to file in the name for further research when he'd got back later.

"Hey, you said that the captains are really tough, right? Then how are you gonna defeat them by yourself?" Ichigo questioned. "I mean, you only have that…"

He paused, scrutinizing the simple and slim black sword at Naruto's side. Its sheath was equally black and extremely straight, and it had an undecorated square tsuba. It was void of any decorations, save for a few faded white linen bandages wrapped across the hilt, giving it an image of sleek practicality. Its length was too long to called it a kodachi, yet too short to be classified as a katana.

"That's a shinobigatana." Naruto grinned in answer to Ichigo's silent question. "To answer your other questions, no, I don't plan on directly engaging the captains. I have my own ways in going about doing things, but we'll carry out each of our plans separately. You guys do your stuff, and I'll handle my own. "

"You sure are confident." Ichigo muttered. "I don't particularly mind, but wouldn't your chances of success be higher if you're in a group? You're just a soul, not even a Shinigami…"

Turning to walk away, Naruto sniggered in amusement at those words. "Oh yeah, that reminds me. I ain't gonna help you enter Seireitei, nor assist you once you're inside. You'll be on your own from here henceforth, so don't go depending on me."

"I wasn't asking for your help in the first place!" Ichigo shouted, exasperated. "What's with that 'Holier then Thou' attitude of yours? It really pisses me off! We'll manage fine on our own, no need for your concern!"

"I'm not too sure about that." Naruto teased, smirking mischievously. "You did seem desperate in wanting me to join your group."

"I wasn't!" Ichigo seethed. "You wait; I'll be seeing you in Seireitei in a few days!"

"Ooh, how are you going to get there? By flying?" Naruto shot back.

"I'm not too sure myself, but we're own our way to visit some guy named Shiba Kukaku right now…" Ichigo said, looking thoughtful and totally missing Naruto's sarcasm. "But I guess flying wouldn't seem like a bad idea."

Naruto rolled his eyes. _'Of course it is, you idiot. Seireitei's walls are made out of_ _Sekkiseki, you know.' _He paused._ 'Oh, wait. If they're planning on visiting the Shiba family, then...' _Naruto had to choke back his laughter._ 'I guess you WILL be flying after all, Ichigo-chan.'  
_

"What about you, huh? How are you gonna get in?" Ichigo queried. "We could let you join us for the ride if you want it so badly." He grinned at his implication.

"Me? Meh, I guess I'll be digging from under." Naruto lied again halfheartedly. "I'm not gonna meet with at Shiba guy. We probably wouldn't hit off. Well, I'd best be off now. Gotta dig that ginormous tunnel and all that…"

Like a dolt, Ichigo believed him. "Good luck with it." He said earnestly. "The next time we meet will be in Seireitei then. See you, Zabuza."

"That's right." Naruto paused. "I still haven't forgotten my pledge about burning you into a crisp. So the next time we meet," Naruto's grin turned vicious. "I won't go easy on you. So you'd better hope that you won't be meeting me ever again. Better yet, don't even put one foot into Seireitei and you'll be free from my wrath. Adios… Strawberry-boy." He waved his hand in offhandedly in farewell as he disappeared from view.

"…Enough with the Strawberry crap already! It's not funny!" Ichigo raged.

* * *

Hearing the breaking out of a large scuffle of voices two corridors down, Naruto exhaled in relief as he hurriedly made his way over to the source of the commotion. '_I finally found them. Kami-sama, that took me forever to do so.' _Turning around the bend, Naruto had to suppress a grin at the sight of a face of a steaming Hitsugaya Toushiro.

"How many times do I have to tell you that I don't like candy!" The white haired captain of the tenth division yelled, veins popping out of his forehead in anger and reiatsu flaring wildly, causing icicles to form at the corners of the room.

"You don't have to be so shy, Shiro-kun." Ukitake Jyuushiro was trying to placate the younger captain. "Calm yourself down; have a gummy bear."

Toushiro looked like he was about to explode any moment. It looked like this one-sided argument had been going on for several minutes now, to drive the usually cool captain into this state.

Seeing as Toushiro was about to burst a major blood vessel in his frustration, Naruto decided to speak up quickly, entering the room and shutting the door tightly behind him as he did so. "Sorry to interrupt, but I have something that needs to be discussed about, taichou." He paused upon seeing his captain standing up. "Are you alright enough to be walking around?"

"It's fine, Naruto." Ukitake-taichou smiled gently as an answer to both questions, though he looked rather perplexed at Naruto's sudden intrusion. He caught the suddenly sharp gaze of the other captain. "What about-"

"It's alright if Toushiro wants to listen in." Naruto cut in.

"…It's Hitsugaya-taichou." The young captain corrected darkly, though he knew that Naruto wouldn't pay heed to his reprimands anyway. _'Why only Ukitake-taichou gets special treatment?' _Toushiro thought sullenly.

True to the other's thoughts, Naruto simply rolled his eyes and carried on talking. "I sense something fishy with this situation here- regarding Rukia's execution, I mean. Firstly being, Rukia's crimes, though serious, doesn't necessarily warrant her death by usage of the Soukyoku. Secondly, don't you find that her grace period being cut short seemed too suspicious?"

There was silence following his words, as the two captains mulled over these thoughts. Finally, Toushiro decided to speak up. "…That's exactly what Aizen said as well. I don't know the details, but Renji told me that Aizen thinks someone has been pulling the strings on Chuuoujyurokushitsu from behind- most probably Gin."

"I wouldn't be too sure about that." Naruto muttered. "It's _Aizen_ after all."

"Naruto," Ukitake began sternly. "I'm sure everyone has their own prejudices, but-"

"I don't like the feeling I get when I'm near that guy." Naruto said stubbornly. "You wait, taichou. That guy puts up a good-guy facade in front of everybody, but I'll get that infuriating mask off his face one day and prove you wrong."

"Of course you will." His taichou smiled benignly at him.

"Don't you even find it the slightest bit strange that a wimp and nerd like Aizen can obtain captain-level position in the first place?" Naruto fumed.

"Yes, I do." Ukitake-taichou agreed, calmly taking a sip of green tea. He failed to elaborate further.

Naruto twitched in anger at his captain's distrust, and huffily stood up and marched off. "Either way, that only gives us an even better reason to stop Rukia's sentence."

"Are you two seriously going to carry out those plans of yours?" Toushiro muttered in disbelief. He had heard the rumors from several unranked Shinigamis of the thirteenth division, and he hadn't cared either way, but hearing it from Naruto's own voice had just confirmed what he had heard.

"What plans?" Naruto questioned, pausing in his steps, anger dissipating.

"…about stopping the execution, what else can I mean?" Toushiro deadpanned.

"Oh, _that_." Naruto laughed. "Sorry to tell you, but we have no plans."

Upon hearing that statement, Toushiro spluttered in disbelief. "Did I just hear that wrongly?"

"No plans." Naruto repeated. At Toushiro's goggling, he decided to elaborate. "Like- zero, zilch, nil, nada, null, zippo, void, nonexistent-"

"Ukitake-taichou! You're okay with this?" Toushiro looked at the other captain incredulously, wide eyed.

"Ah, yes. I have decided to place my full support and trust Naruto. He will be doing the bulk of the rescue work though." Ukitake smiled. "He'll pull through somehow; he always does. You don't have to worry at all."

"T-Then, how do you plan on rescuing Kuchiki?" Toushiro gaped. _'You're leaving it entirely up to _Naruto_? How can I not worry?'_Toushiro mentally screamed. That blond was a dunderhead! True, it wouldn't concern him, who was of a different squad, but Toushiro didn't want to witness the two of them to sinking into deep trouble.

Naruto waved a hand in annoyance. "Tch. Isn't that simple? We break in, get her out, open a Sekaimon and send her in a gigai back down to the real world to live her entire life out there peacefully. Or she could choose to live in Rukongai; her choice. The other details like traps and whatnot… Well, I guess I'll deal with it when it comes."

It was a rare moment for Toushiro as found himself at a lost for words at the sheer ridiculousness of the idea. The way Naruto had put it… the chances of the 'rescue mission' being successful would be lesser then ten percent.

Naruto paused as he slid open the door. "Oh yeah, I spotted a few interesting characters at Junrinan, Rukongai today. I know Shinigamis don't usually meddle with the citizens over there, but it would do you good to check them out. And quickly too, before they wander off." _'If Ichigo and his gang got themselves caught… that would mean he's only _that_ capable.'_

"Don't tell me they are the Ryoka Gin failed to get rid off." Toushiro finally sighed. "I'll get my men to check it out later. It sucks to be cleaning up someone else's mess though."

"I don't know whether they're Ryoka or not. I think that's everything I wanted to say." Naruto replied absently, deep in his own thoughts.

"Naruto," Ukitake spoke up. "You know, since you're already doing so much for our division, why not try for-"

"Aww geez, taichou. Why won't you give it a rest already?" Naruto sighed in aggravation. Sliding the door close, he waved a nonchalant hand up in farewell. "Ja, matta ashita, Ukitake-taichou… and Toushiro."

The door snapped shut. There was silence for awhile, then…

"It's Hitsugaya-taichou, goddammit!"

'_Was it just me, or did I sense déjà vu?'_ Naruto frowned.

* * *

Author's notes:

Eh. I think I overdid it on the drama again. You can start flaming now if you want. (ToT)

This basically sums up episodes 23 and 24. I plan on finishing this arc and the Huendo Muco one, but don't worry. I won't go into too much detail- like from episode to episode or something. Another thing- don't get me wrong, it's not like I hate Ichigo or anything, but I just find him rather naïve when it comes to things related to Soul Society. You can't blame him; he's a human after all. In any case, he now currently serves as Naruto's object of entertainment.

And Naruto's lies… no comment. Sorry that Yoruichi and the gang didn't have much action. But they'll appear more frequently later. I guess. …At least Yoruichi will.

_Baka Kitsune_- Stupid Fox  
_Ossan_- Old Man  
_Kodachi_- About 59cm  
_Katana_- Approx. 60–73 cm  
_Shinobigatana_- Actually, it's a fictional type of sword that ninjas use- existence, and hence actual length, not confirmed.  
_Tsuba_- Hand guard  
_Ja, matta ashita_- Until tomorrow then. A more direct translation would be 'Then, wait for/anticipate tomorrow'.

Thanks for the favorites, reviews and alerts. I hoped I didn't disappoint you. Feel free to comment your queries or opinions. I might reply back if it doesn't risk plot spoilers.  
(^w^)

Until next time,

**TenkuuBatsu**


	5. Chase Out

Chapter 5- _Chase Out_

* * *

The alarms flared, loudly and suddenly, shocking many shinigami around Seireitei, driving them into a state of panic and chaos. Naruto watched amusedly, perched on a rooftop as men clad in black robes flailed about, rushing to their assigned positions as per standard protocol.

'_Shinigamis are really pathetic,'_ Naruto thought apathetically. Emergency evacuations were common in Konoha-being a shinobi village and all, and even when they included the villagers, none of them ended up as chaotic and messy as what he was currently witnessing. _'Yamamoto-jiji should carry out practice drills more often.' _He contemplated, as a buffoon tripped over his own pair of large feet, causing a domino effect to carry out as several others fell and piled up over him.

Looking up, a bright light flashed, momentarily blinding him, but Naruto's vision was regained just in time to see said light spilt into four different directions, one landing too close to the thirteenth division's headquarters for comfort with a loud crash. Ukitake-taichou wouldn't like it if he had to cover up for the property damage; reparations costs were on a rise nowadays.

Hearing a bout of maniacal laughter ringing out in the distance made Naruto's heart beat even faster. The captain meeting was probably adjourned, and Zaraki was out to get his share of kicking Ryoka ass out of Seireitei. That also meant that Ukitake-taichou would be heading back to his division's main quarters to either receive news about the captain's meeting from Kyoraku, or find out about the disturbances going on.

That wasn't good.

Lurching up from his perch, Naruto turned towards the direction of the nearest crash- the one near his division- and hurriedly made his way over by successively executed shunpo. He couldn't afford to be caught slacking off the job his taichou had placed him with by said taichou himself. He was barely halfway done- his taichou would be disappointed with the lack of progress. Nope, that wouldn't do.

Finally, he reached the spot where there was a medium sized crater on the tiled floor, and a cluster of Shinigami grouped over it, their katanas drawn. Landing lightly on the roof of a nearby building, Naruto hollered towards them. "Oi, you bunch of stooges down there!"

Naruto rolled his eyes as the men fumbled about for a while, trying to locate the source of the call, shoulders tensed and ready to lash out if it was by an enemy. It had been funny seeing them look around blindly the first few times, but now it was getting mundane. They dropped their guard upon seeing that it was Naruto who had called out, however.

"U-Uzumaki-dono! How may we be of assistance?" One of the men replied, slightly abashed that he hadn't recognized Naruto's voice. A few of them behind him still looked ticked off at what Naruto had called them. They were probably this year's new recruits from Shinoureijutsuin, the Shinigami Academy. The rest of the division members were well acquainted with Naruto's frequent disrespectful nature.

"The Ryoka would've probably long fled away already, so don't bother hunting them down. More importantly, try to find a way to patch up that hole down there before the captain returns. I don't want him piling me down with a stack of repair bills." Naruto ordered. He then flashed off towards his office before any of the shocked men below could acknowledge his commands.

Throughout his time in the thirteenth division, Naruto had never been one whom mingled with his subordinates. In fact, he seldom spoke to anyone else besides Rukia and Ukitake, choosing to coop himself up in his room or in the library, or simply did not dwindle in his division at all. It wasn't because he was cold or uncaring, no. It was simply because he didn't have enough _time_. The rest of his remaining free time had all been spent completely on researching and searching for his lost shinobi friends- that or being lost in thoughts and training.

Therefore, it wasn't a big surprise for him when his men gawked responded slowly and dumbly when he spoke to them. Forget causal talk, they behaved like that even when he dished out orders. Before he knew it, Naruto had became the division's 'untouchable'. Ooh, the irony. Sasuke was probably laughing at him from wherever-the-hell he is in now.

Turning around the corner, Naruto slammed straight into the chest of the person he was most hoping _not_ to meet. Cursing under his breath about his luck and wincing in pain, Naruto hastily righted himself by latching onto the nearest wall for support. "Ha, I wasn't expecting to see you here, taichou. Are you fit enough to be moving out of Ugendou Quarters?"

"I feel fine, Naruto." Ukitake smiled down at him, flexing an arm to show his apparent good health. His third seats flanked his sides. "Besides, I have Kiyone and Sentaro here with me today-"Ukitake didn't manage to finish his sentence as he broke down into large hacks and coughs, ruining his previous comments altogether.

Naruto snorted in exasperation at his captain's bluff. "Apparently, you're not fine enough. Alright, Kiyone, Sentaro. Looks like its time to drag him back to Ugendou. Geez, I can't believe you guys actually let him persuade you to allow him to go out."

"Yeah, well, he was rather insistent on coming here to check out that bright light-" Sentaro answered sheepishly but broke off halfway as Ukitake's coughs grew harsher. He hurriedly slung his captain arm over his shoulder, despite the latter's feeble attempts at waving him off.

"Taichou! Hang in there!" Kiyone, not to be outdone by her partner, took hold of Ukitake's other arm whilst patting her captain's back in an attempt to ease his coughing. The three started marching back to Ukitake's quarters, regardless of its owner's dissent.

"Aww, buzz off Kiyone!" Sentaro snapped from across his captain. "I believe that I'm able to take care of the captain by myself! You can join Naruto in finishing the paperwork!"

"Well, Naruto can handle the paperwork just fine!" Kiyone snapped back, eyes blazing. "I'm not gonna leave the captain alone in the hands of a dunderhead like you!"

"What did you say, you little twerp!" Sentaro seethed. "If taichou is gonna die under anyone's care, it'll be under yours! You don't even know how to feed him his medicine!"

"Well, you don't even know how to check his temperature!" Kiyone shot back.

"You don't know how to change his bandages!" Sentaro was close to shouting.

Naruto decided to have pity on his captain before the poor man became deaf due to his third seats squabbling. "You know, if you're both so useless, why not let me take over?" He injected quickly. "You two should start doing the paperwork once in a while-"

"NO!" Both his superiors screamed at him at the same time, their eyes bulging out at the idea.

"Are you crazy? If someone as clumsy as you were to look after taichou, he won't even be able to live to see next week!" Sentaro was practically screaming into Naruto's face, mouth frothing and spraying spit all over the place. "You shouldn't even be _allowed_ to go near the taichou after that incident-"

Naruto groaned. "Aww, come off it. It was just that one time-"

"It was such a catastrophe!" Kiyone shuddered as she recalled Naruto's last visit to Ugendou Quarters. She hugged Ukitake closer and together with Sentaro, they hastened their steps, half-dragging Ukitake along with them. "A destroyed room, soggy bedsheets, broken vases, wrecked furniture, koi fish flipping all over the floors, and Ukitake-taichou _drenched, shivering from head to toe when he was supposed to the resting peacefully_!" She shrilled the last part out.

"I apologized, didn't I?" Naruto pouted, wincing at that memory. "And Unohana-taichou hit me so hard afterwards, I thought I was about to reincarnate."

"Don't come near us!" Sentaro screamed, shielding his captain away from Naruto's reach. "You're like, the Ukitake-taichou jinx!"

"Hey! Say that one more time and I'll stop doing ALL of your repulsive paperwork-"Naruto began, but was cut off by a rather violent hack from Ukitake. That led to his superiors ushering the captain away with a speed so fast they might have as well used shunpo to make their way there.

"Taichou! Don't worry, I'm almost halfway done!" Naruto yelled out his message hurriedly, seeing as he wouldn't have a chance to see his captain until the latter managed to escape the overprotective claws of his third seats- a feat that would take him quite a while to accomplish. "And I'll get Kyoraku-taichou to go to Ugendou when he arrives!"

Ukitake could only give him an apologetic but thankful smile in reply before he was whisked away by his subordinates.

Naruto chuckled and turned to leave. With Kiyone, Sentaro and himself as his closest officers, Naruto doubted Ukitake could ever get himself a few moments of peace and quiet.

* * *

It had been two full days of complete chaos and tension for all divisions alike in Seireitei. If Naruto knew that Ichigo and his gang could create so many ruckuses in just forty-eight hours, he would have probably barred them from entering Seireitei on that day and whisked them back to the Human World.

The only sole reason he hadn't done so was because he was hoping that the group would provide him adequate distraction for him to be able to make preparations for the rescue plan which was finalized at long last by Ukitake-taichou. They had completed their unknowing task splendidly. Too perfectly to the point that Naruto thought that they were overdoing it to antagonize to him.

Since he hadn't expected that all the ruckus they caused had came with recoil on his part.

"I'll kill them," Naruto swore foully under his breath as Kiyone dumped yet another towering stack of paperwork on his desk. "The next time I see those bastards, I'll definitely slaughter them all."

Ichigo and his gang were meeting his expectations all TOO well- that much was apparent and all fine and dandy. But seriously, what was the point of doing so when it had led to him devoting more time to paperwork then to undoing all those seals?

As soon as he had sent Kyoraku down to Ugendou, Naruto found himself stuck on his chair, unable to leave his office as his desk was flooded by paperwork and requests for support and aid from other divisions. Especially from the fourth. He had spent the last two days dispatching men all over Seireitei, he didn't even have time to take his daily walks down to Rukongai at all.

Even Kiyone and Sentaro were pitching in to help- they had left their captain under the care and watchful eyes of several handpicked and unranked subordinates, but that wasn't enough. In fact, Naruto swore the paperwork was growing larger in retaliation. The thirteenth division had seen the most of their fourth seat in these two days put together then throughout the entire year.

"Urrgh, I'm dying…" Naruto moaned, slumped over his desk, sick with all the documents he had been forced to read through. He grabbed a pile of papers in frustration and tossed them into the air, sending them scattering all over the wooden floors. Then he glanced boringly down at the summary report he had drawn up for his captain.

Madarame Ikkaku, third seat of the eleventh division- defeated, currently receiving care in fourth division. Requesting men for support and assistance. Slashed up pretty badly too. Well, serves that baldie right. Naruto had never liked the other's guts.

Yumichika Ayasegawa, fifth seat of the eleventh division- defeated, currently receiving care in fourth division. Requesting men for support and assistance. Seems like the sissy-boy had spontaneously exploded. He was supposedly still mourning over it- placing great emphasis on his newly acquired afro- in the forth division's barracks.

Abarai Renji, lieutenant of the sixth division- defeated, apparently not receiving care despite sustaining severe injuries as his captain's punishment for losing his fight. Naruto winced. Ouch, that was harsh, Byakuya. Requesting men for support and assistance…

Along with those three came a long list of other Shinigami from all over Seireitei Naruto didn't know, and didn't bother to find out who the heck they were. He just sent a bunch of men down to help out in whatever way each taichou wanted them to. Sometime during all this chaos, Rukia was transferred over to Senzaikyuu. The security over there was so tight; Naruto couldn't even sneak in even if he wanted to.

He didn't have time for this nonsense. He shouldn't be sitting down here quietly, doing useless paperwork when he should be working on his plan for releasing Rukia. The seals won't unlock themselves, and he still had a few dozen more layers to clear-

"U-Uzumaki-dono! It's terrible!" An unranked shinigami came bursting into his office. "L-Listen to this! I-It's-"

Naruto glared at the man, unleashing a little of his pent up frustrations on the poor guy. That let to the other quivering in fear. "This had better be good, squirt. I'm already up to my neck in paperwork here, and if you disturb my precious time to flood me with random, useless, mundane ramblings, I swear, I'll swipe off your bloody head with Shinko and hang your dead carcass to shrivel up and dry-"

"Aizen-taichou is d-d-dead!" The poor shinigami manage to squeak out his news, whilst cowering in fear.

"What? Really? You're not pulling my ass? He's _dead_?" That had effectively snapped Naruto out of his bloodlust. "When did it happen? Where's his body now? Who was the attacker? How'd-"

"I don't know!" The guy screamed in fright. He was shaking so much, Naruto thought the other was about to piss in his pants. "No one saw it happen! Everyone is in panic at this! I-I think Hinamori-fukutaichou and K-Kira-fukutaichou are duking it out now at the fifth division's b-barracks-"

Naruto saw his chance to get some fresh air and took it at once, with much gusto and glee. _'What's even better, that bastard, Aizen, is finally dead!'_ "I'll go check it out immediately." He addressed his subordinate, trying to keep his delight from showing on his face, lest he'd be labeled a sadist.

He failed, and what came out was a deranged, twisted smirk, which made him resembled a sadist even more. "In the meantime, you take that stack of papers from my desk and on the floor and give it to Kiyone and Sentaro."

He was gone in a flash, leaving behind only one very pale and stuttering Shinigami in the messy office.

* * *

When Naruto arrived at the scene, the first thing that greeted his sight was two red-faced and angry lieutenants held in a deadlock by an equally irate Toushiro. Both Kira and Hinamori had their zanpakutous out, blades gleaming brightly under the sunlight, thirsty for blood.

Toushiro seemed to be handling the situation well, though he looked as though he was ready to chop someone's head off for making him deal with these troublesome situations at the start of the day. Upon sensing Naruto's arrival, he inclined his head slightly towards the left, before returning his attention to reprimanding the two lieutenants.

Glancing towards where the young captain had indicated, Naruto saw the bloody corpse of Aizen, pinned painfully and held loosely on the whitewashed wall by his own zanpakuto. _'Yes! Could it be…? Wait… oh… damn.' _Rolling his eyes at the dramatics of it all, Naruto quickly headed over to remove the 'body'.

Tugging out the protruding sword, Naruto gently lowered the corpse back down onto the ground, scrutinizing it closely. If Shinko hadn't detected something off about the corpse, Naruto himself was sure that he would've believed it to be real, and danced around screaming with elation at Aizen's supposed death.

He guessed it wasn't that easy to kill that bastard. Plans of proclaiming the body fake and destroying whatever Aizen had intended to do with killing himself crossed Naruto's mind, but that would only lead to Aizen taking another route of action, as well as informing the man that Naruto was aware of his 'not so goody-goody' side.

Naruto hence decided that it was best if he just played along with Aizen's schemes first, until his real motive was finally clear. Naruto was fairly certain it had something to do with Rukia. It was chaotic all of a sudden, and then Rukia's execution date was moved up. Maybe Aizen was after the Kuchiki family's assets. Whatever it is, Naruto would make sure that the other wouldn't get it.

"Naruto," Toushiro greeted as he headed over to take things from Naruto, relief team in tow. He had already efficiently cleared away the area; the small cracks in the tiles were the only indication that a fight had taken place not too long ago. "How's the body?"

"Definitely dead, since I couldn't find a pulse, but I'd suggest taking it to Unohana-taichou for further confirmation." Naruto stood up, shrugging. "The old geezer's not gonna be pleased with this. That's the first captain down, and by internal strife, no less."

Toushiro groaned slightly at the thought of having to stand stiffly through another meeting whereby their Sotaichou ranted non-stop about the disarray Seireitei was currently put through. "I'll catch Gin red-handed one day, you just wait and see." He muttered resentfully.

Naruto grinned, a bit guilty since Toushiro took his bait all too well, and hastily excused himself with something about piling paperwork. But all he could ever think of was returning to his seals. Aizen was on the move. He had to hurry.

And he wasn't the least bit guilty about his abandonment of the paperwork.

* * *

Naruto was feeling pissed. He had put down his paintbrushes, cleared the floor, drawn up a barrier, and was happily cracking the fifth seal when a spike of reiatsu disturbed his concentration. It was Ichigo's and Kenpatchi's. And the latter wasn't holding back the least bit.

Naruto pitied Ichigo. Then he remembered that Ichigo was supposed to be distracting the captains, and what he was currently doing now fits the criteria perfectly. Shrugging since he didn't really cared for the outcome of this reiatsu power battle, he returned to his seals. Though he did pray for his own sake that Ichigo would not wind up too badly injured- it would render his useless in the upcoming matches.

He was barely past the sixth seal when another reiatsu spike interrupted. One was distinctly recognizable as Kyoraku-taichou's. The other was faint, but Naruto identified it as Ichigo's Mexican pal, the one with the huge bulk and the shaggy hair. Naruto winced. _'Ouch, he doesn't even stand a chance.' _With the outcome of this fight clearly decided, Naruto quickly lost interest and went back to his work.

Only to be disturbed yet again by two more reiatsu spikes. This one was so very faint, if Shinko hadn't enhanced his senses, Naruto was certain that he wouldn't have felt it. He was surprised as he identified the owners though. Byakuya was fighting. With Ganju no less. Naruto found it rather pathetic that it was _Ganju_ who was the first of the ryoka to make it to the Shrine of Petinence.

Naruto hesitated. Ganju wouldn't stand a chance. And Byakuya wasn't the type to pity rule breakers. Furthermore, so many things could go wrong with this situation, the most pressing being Rukia's super early death due to a ballistic Ganju. Naruto idly wondered how Aizen would take that current turn of events. Wasn't he hard pressed on having Rukia fried by the Soukyoku?

Messing his hair up in frustration, Naruto cursed loudly at how idiotic he was to allow idiots to enter Seireitei and run around blindly like brainless chickens. Idiots that were stupid enough to pick up suicide matches with captains twice their strength and four times their brain capacity. Everything was going haywire.

And no, he wasn't feeling guilty that he sent them to their deaths. And no, he wasn't regretting that he had allowed them to enter Seireitei that day. And lastly, no, he wasn't in denial.

Jolting to his feet, Naruto started sprinting towards the Senzaikyuu as fast as he could go.

This had to be the most stupidest plan he had ever came up with in his entire lifetime. And he was Uzumaki Naruto- that was saying a lot of things.

Naruto wanted a ryoka refund.

* * *

Naruto knew that he wasn't going to make it. Ichigo was going to die. His worry for Ganju had only lasted for five seconds- the same amount of time it took for Byakuya to put the other into painful oblivion. Naruto could only console himself with the fact that he hadn't accidentally killed off Kaien's little brother, however ugly looking the other might be.

Speaking of ugly, things were really starting to get gruesome down there. Hell, even his own captain was there, with Kiyone and Sentaro flanking him as per usual. But since the third seats were there, Naruto didn't worry too much about his captain. He paused slightly as a new unrecognized reiatsu entered the fray.

Before Naruto knew what was happening, Ichigo had artlessly passed out, Byakuya and the unknown guy engaged themselves in trying to out-shunpo each other, and finally, the mysterious stranger and an unconscious Ichigo made their grand escape- without Rukia. Naruto was left, feeling extremely confused and vexed out.

Knowing that his captain will handle things back with Rukia, Naruto pivoted sharply and gave chase to the two runaway ryoka. He wanted to know what the hell that was back there all about. And then he was going to give those troublesome ryoka their resignation letters.

* * *

Naruto had been trailing them without pause for at least half an hour. Most of it was the ryoka heading to random places and looping around Seireitei in an attempt to shake off potential pursuers. Naruto admitted that the other was good in his job- he had lost them several times before Shinko had to pitch in to help.

Now it finally seems as though the two were heading towards their intended destination. Still, that did not stop Naruto from calling the other numerous names- which ranged from Cyborg to Gai Reincarnate- at the back of his mind silently.

Ichigo had woken up halfway through the trip, and as expected, he made a lot noise before his companion did something to silence him. Ichigo had remained silent throughout the rest of the journey like a good little boy.

Naruto didn't know what the two of them were thinking of when they stopped at a clearing at the bottom of Soukyoku Hill, but his legs felt like jelly and he was just glad to be able to stop and rest them. Landing on the ground with a hard thump and heaving like a madman, it was almost certain that both ryoka would take notice of him.

"Hah, as expected… of Shihoin Yoruichi… my legs feel wobbly…" Naruto gasped out, panting, face flushed red. "That was… one hell of a chase… I'm never… ever gonna do that… ever again…"

"You mean you followed us all the way from Senzaikyuu?" Yoruichi asked, cat-like eyes narrowed, but held faint amusement in them. She too was panting slightly. If anything else, the light sheen of sweat covering her face was an indication of her fatigue. She smirked. "Then you're one hell of a kid, boy."

Naruto didn't bothered wasting his breath to reply her, but turned towards Ichigo instead. "You… Strawberry-boy… take your pals and get out of Soul Society this instant. I overestimated your abilities… and I underestimated the old man. This ain't no place for kiddies like you."

Ichigo did not take to the sudden evacuation request lightly. "What the hell do you mean by that? You want us to shove off the moment you think we can't make it? After everything we've been through, you think we'd leave so easily?" Ichigo scoffed. " Hell no!"

Naruto felt seventy years worth of pent up frustration and anger starting to bubble up inside him. "I'll get Ukitake-taichou to open up a Senkaimon for you tonight. You just stay here and keep hidden while I go retrieve your pals." He said as calmly as he could.

"What the hell is wrong with you? 'Ukitake-taichou'? Why are you sounding like… one of them?" Ichigo questioned, taking in Naruto's appearance for the first time. His hair was a little disheveled, and his whisker marks still there, but the most prominent difference was that he was wearing standard Shinigami Shihakushou, with his funny black sword tucked into his obi like a zanpakuto.

"Don't worry, I'll save Rukia by myself, then I'll sent her down to live in Karakura." Naruto explained tonelessly, not bothering to answer Ichigo's questions at all. "I don't want to live knowing that I've willingly let several innocent living souls died running around Seireitei. I shouldn't have let you guys cannonball your way through that day-"

Ichigo took a deep breath. And then he exploded.

Naruto halted his speech suddenly and was forced to withdraw Shinko from its sheath as Ichigo brought Zangetsu down heavily on him. The two blades met with a resounding clang, but all Naruto could hear was Ichigo irate ranting.

"I've had enough of your bullshit, Zabuza!" Ichigo yelled. "I've always disliked you and that 'Know It All' attitude of yours! What's with that crappy speech, proclaiming that you're the mastermind behind our actions and all that shit? Well let me tell you something- You didn't do shit in anything that we've accomplished! I chose to fight Renji and Kenpatchi with my own free will! We willingly put our lives at stake for Rukia! _You_ did not force us to do anything at all, got that?"

"Oh yeah? I could've stopped you that day." Naruto hissed, voice cold. "Then you wouldn't even have managed to place a single foot in Seireitei."

"I'd like to see you try, you little wimp." Ichigo sneered. "Just because you're facing captains tougher than you, you're chickening out like a coward. If you're so scared why don't you run back to the real world instead?"

"Screw this shit." Naruto muttered darkly, thoroughly pissed now. "I'll just send you back now whether you like it or not. Then I'll go hunt down your pals and send them back as well."

Before Ichigo could react, Naruto smoothly slid his sword out of the deadlock and swiped at the other, who instinctively dodged the blade. They engaged in a series of furious parries, slashing and blocking, each trying to land a hit on the other to no avail.

By all rights, Ichigo, with his larger blade and heavier hits, should have had an upper hand. But to his frustration, Zangetsu wasn't even able to land a scratch on the other. Naruto was far too nimble, always out-maneuvering him, dodging at the last second, and appearing from behind with shunpo, using Ichigo's surprise to take a swipe at him.

One vertical slash got through, that left Ichigo reeling backwards from the force and his own effort to dodge. "You keep attacking from blind spots. That's cheating." Ichigo snarled as he steadied himself. He analyzed the other who was standing in front of him, the blond readying his sword for another attack.

Naruto was quick- maybe even faster than Byakuya. But unlike the stiff captain, Naruto's attacks had no form, and it meant that Ichigo couldn't predict where the next strike would be coming from. Lastly, Ichigo knew that look in his eyes- one that he himself had worn many times during battles. The usually laid back and teasing blond was seriously determined to send them back to the real world.

"You know what they say; there are no rules in a death match." Naruto shrugged carelessly in reply. Then he attacked. He was gone the next moment and Ichigo barely had enough time to swivel and block the sharp sword coming down upon him.

'_Shit, he ain't holding back isn't he?' _Ichigo mentally yelled, gritting his teeth as he had to push back his blade with much difficulty and concentration. Naruto's eyes were dark, and he was effortlessly holding up against the large Zangetsu with that ridiculously short sword of his that couldn't even have been considered a proper katana.

And that irritating Yoruichi didn't even looked as though she would be pitching in to help any time soon. She was just standing by the sides, amusing herself with the match, and at Ichigo's apparent realization that this battle wouldn't be as easy as it had originally seemed to be.

Alright, Ichigo grumbled to himself. So he did underestimate Zabuza because the other seemed a little light on his feet and had always worn a 'good boy' expression on his face. Considering that he took down punks like Renji and Kenpatchi, Zabuza seemed like an easy opponent. Ichigo finally realized the meaning of not judging a book by its cover.

Even Zabuza's sword was not to be underestimated. That small thin slab of metal had yet to break or crack even after withstanding the harsh clashes it had with Zangetsu, who was not only heavy, but a full fledged zanpakuto.

Grunting, Ichigo starting pumping his reiatsu into his sword. He didn't want to do this, but he needed to get out of the little wrestle with Zabuza. The other might not tire, but he would if anymore of this continued further.

Zabuza seemed to sensed what Ichigo had planned on doing, as his eyes widened in disbelief. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" He yelled.

"I'm getting us out of this irritating stalemate." Ichigo grinned, which turned quickly into a grimace. This was going to hurt real bad, but it was worth the risk if it would bring that speedy bastard down. Bracing himself, Ichigo released the reiatsu he had built up inside Zangetsu.

"Getsuga Tenshou."

A loud explosion erupted, sending both fighters flying in opposite directions, crashing into trees which provided minimal cushioning, before dropping down onto the ground, smoking and clearly burnt. Ichigo was the first to climb back up to his feet, nursing his left arm, which had shielded him, taking the brunt of the burns from his self inflicted attack.

He panted heavily, wondering if the Getsuga Tenshou he had released at point blank range was enough to bring the speedy Zabuza down. Well, at least the wounds Zabuza received from the last attack would slow him down slightly, and dampen the coming attacks. The other's damage should've been greater- who, unlike Ichigo, did not have a huge bulky sword to shield him from the blast.

There was loud and rough coughing as Zabuza emerged from his blast crater. His blond hair was more disheveled then it had ever been, and his Shihakushou was slightly tattered, singed and covered in dirt. Angry red burns covered his forearms and left cheek, but apparently Zabuza had incredible pain tolerance since he was walking forward menacingly without the slightest stagger.

"That hurt. A lot. You freaking dumbass." Naruto growled, fists clenched tightly on his zanpakuto's black hilt. "You almost killed yourself back there. You could've died, and your stay in Soul Society would've been permanent!" He hissed in outrage, eyes flashing, almost crimson for a moment.

"I told you before- I would risk my life for Rukia." Ichigo replied steadily, preparing himself for another round of onslaught. "After all, if it wasn't for her, I wouldn't even be standing here today."

That made Naruto even angrier. "Why don't you get it? You're a freaking human! You still have a life to live for in the real world! I said I'll handle Rukia's case and send her back to you nicely alright? So don't involve yourself in our matters anymore!"

"Sorry Zabuza, but it became my matter the moment I received my Shinigami powers." Ichigo was just as resolute as the other. Brown eyes locked with blue, both as unrelenting as the other, as the two circled around each other, looking for an opening to strike through.

"I know you mean well, but I can't just leave everything to you. Rukia's current predicament is my responsibility. I'll take care of the mess that I made myself." Ichigo said, not taking his eyes off the other's sword, tracking, and tracing its every moment.

"What a grown-up statement to make. Funny, I don't remember you being so mature when you decided to blast yourself off together with me a minute ago." Naruto sneered. "Even if you don't cherish your own life, think about the others you left behind won't you? Why don't you just _wake up already_, and realize that _there are people back there waiting for you_?"

Ichigo flinched slightly at that statement, and Naruto did not hesitate to slash at Ichigo, who did not manage to avoid the swipe completely. The metallic scent of blood was quick to fill the clearing, as Ichigo rolled away, staggering back to his feet, clutching a bleeding wound on his left shoulder, which trailed down to his chest.

Naruto was quick to press on his advantage, locking swords with Ichigo once more, wrestling the orange haired teen down. He moved in a flash, just as agile as he had been when the battle started, the burns he had acquired already starting to heal. Adrenaline was pumping within him, sharpening his movements, but rage was his currently his main fuel.

"Since you don't want your life that badly, then I'll end it here for you." Naruto declared, pressing down harder on Ichigo, who was gritting his teeth in an effort to not bend over from the force place over him. Ichigo felt his legs buckling, and the air around him heating up. He couldn't breathe right, and an unearthly whisper filled his ears.

"_Kyoufu ni Toke, Shinseihiko_."

* * *

Another chapter finally up. Sorry for the super long delay. I'm guessing that you're all surprised that I haven't died yet. Well, too bad, maybe another time. At least I've finally drawn up this story's general outline, so my chapters won't (hopefully) be as wishy-washy as the previous ones anymore.

Sadly, I can't quite get rid of the cheesiness of the chapters yet. I'm also sorry that I kept alternating Naruto's name between Naruto and Zabuza. But rest assured, they both referred to Naruto.

I don't have a beta so please inform me if you spot any changes, I'll fix them right away.

_Kyoufu ni Toke, Shinseihiko- _Melt in Terror, Shinseihiko

_Tristan76_- Thanks for the information, but yeah, I think you must've misunderstood me somewhere; I meant for Naruto's sword to be shorter than the average katana, not a long sword like a zanbanto. Still, your research is much appreciated, and I'm glad that you liked the chapter.

To all my readers out there, I hoped that I didn't disappoint. If you need to clear up anything regarding this chapter, leave me a message. I'll reply provided that I do not risk plot spoilers.

Until next time,  
TenkuuBatsu.


	6. Revelation Clashes

Chapter 6- Revelation Clashes  
_

* * *

_

_"Kyoufu o Toke, Shinseihiko."_

Ichigo's heart was racing as his brain went into overdrive with what Zabuza had just said. But as he opened his mouth to ask Zabuza what the other had meant, he found himself unable to utter a single word out as his body refused to obey his commands.

It was incomprehensible. In a single moment, his body turned numb, his heart was thundering loudly from within his ribcage, and cold sweat trickled down his brow. Every breath he inhaled into his lungs took effort, and all his eyes could ever focus on was the dark crimson and smoking blade that was pressing him down onto the floor.

Ichigo realized that he was going to lose. No, forget losing. He wasn't even going to get a rematch, because he was definitely going to die very soon. He was out of strength, and his hands were clammy and cold. He was already on his knees, and the moment he lost his grip over Zangetsu, Zabuza will slash him into two, just as he had declared.

Just as Ichigo thought that the situation could not get any worse than it already was, Zabuza forced his sword down harder, and to Ichigo's deep dread, started cleaving through Zangetsu as easily as though the other was butter. With a hiss, Zangetsu gave way to the other, melting into two, dropping red hot iron shavings onto the ground below.

'_Goddammit… MOVE!_' Ichigo mentally yelled, and to his relief, he managed to clumsily dive away from the pressing hold and rolled away, breathing hard, before Zangetsu completely gave way and melt into half. The heavy taunt feeling in his chest was gone, and he found it easier to breathe now. "What… the hell was that?" Ichigo panted. "Why do you have…a shikai?"

Zabuza looked up at him, his blue eyes hardened and cold. "That's because Shinseihiko is a genuine, authentic zanpakuto, idiot." The blond replied coolly, his sentence eerily echoing the one Urahara had said to him a few days back. He took a step forward, a foot resting mockingly on the red stained earth, from which Ichigo's blood from his unstaunched wound had created. Small iron shavings- _Zangetsu's_ iron- littered the floor around him like silver pearls, some still smoking with a red hue.

"But still, I'll have to hand it to you. You managed to regain your senses even though Shinko is in such close range." Zabuza continued. He lifted his sword, easily repositioning it at an angle that was easy to slice at Ichigo, but yet difficult for the other to block. The blade of the released Shinseihiko was not only longer, it was much sleeker, smoother and curvier, almost resembling an elongated but skinny sickle. But the most significant change was that the once silver blade had bled into a shade of deep dark red.

"You… You're a Shinigami?" Ichigo gasped in disbelief. "But, you-"

"I lied. About everything. And you foolishly lapped it up like a bloody dumbass. Hell, my name's not even Zabuza to begin with!" 'Zabuza' scoffed. "But all that doesn't matter. 'Cuz you're probably not gonna live past today. You don't have to worry about anything, Strawberry; I'll be sure to send your pals back to the real world safely, and then I'll rescue Rukia myself without anymore hindrances."

Not- Zabuza took another step forward, and the tension within Ichigo built itself up again, constricting his chest and making his legs feel like it was being held down by several kilograms of weights. "That's the first Hell Circle- Tatsumaki." The blond informed the orange haired teen. "You can't breathe right, can you? Your body won't obey your instincts to run. You can only look straight ahead, and accept the fact that you're going to die by this blade of mine."

With a twisted grin that exposed extra long canines, he disappeared, reappearing a few inches away from Ichigo's sweaty face, blade flashing, gleaming, greedy for more blood to coat its already red surface. Ichigo couldn't move his body the slightest, couldn't even bring his arms up to defend himself from the swing aimed for his exposed neck.

"And this is the second Circle of Hell, Chinoike." Not-Zabuza's voice was suddenly resounding through Ichigo's muddled head. Ichigo's eyes widened, seeing the red blade rushing towards him, but was defenseless against it, unable to protect himself from it as it sliced through the air, finishing its descend, steaming, heating up the atmosphere around it…

"Too bad Ichigo, but this match wasn't even a stalemate to begin with." The shinobi said without a hint of empathy in his voice. "Checkmate. This is _game over_."

Ichigo snapped his eyes shut, unwilling to surrender, to admit his defeat. He couldn't die here, without even accomplishing what he had came here to do. No, didn't want to die. He _couldn't_ die. There was a loud snap, and the swift movement of the blade was halted to a sudden stop.

Opening his eyes, he was met with a bundle of orange cloths and tanned hands clasping down upon them tightly. Yoruichi had finally decided to step in. Ichigo would've breathed a sigh of relief at his lucky escape from death, but his body was still paralyzed and unable to move.

"Alright boys, that's enough playtime for today." Yoruichi's voice was teasing but strained, her brows furrowed with the effort of holding down the deep crimson blade. She had used her orange over-shirt to protect her palms from being scorched by the heated sword, exposing her tanned, well-toned upper arms. But the over-shirt didn't seem to be thick enough as the burning zanpakuto was hard at work. Black burn marks were already appearing on the outer layers of the cloth, and angry smoke hissed out from within the bundle.

Yoruichi winced from the pain of having to clamp down on the over-heated- and still heating up- sword. "I'm afraid I'll have to ask you to keep your paws off Ichigo-kun for the next three days, fourth seat of the thirteenth division, Uzumaki Naruto." She purred out. "Since as of today, he'll be under my good care."

If the other was surprised that Yoruichi knew his real name and status, he was good at hiding it- his shoulders didn't even shake the slightest, nor did his eyes twitch in agitation. Naruto's focus slowly moved away from Ichigo's unmoving form to lock onto her face, cold and calculating, and the grip on his sword unyielding. He cocked his head curiously towards the side. "And what makes you think three days would be enough to beat some sense into this useless piece of sack, Shunshin Yoruichi?"

"Because if he doesn't get his head straight, Rukia will be executed." Yoruichi replied as steadily as she could, sweating from the heat Naruto's blade was giving off, and from the strain of trying to hold the sword down. "Besides, as of now, Ganju and Sado are taken out of the field. The only competent players left now are Ishida and Ichigo. Ishida, unlike the others, uses his brains and knows the meaning of sneaking around. And I'm taking Ichigo out with me, so you can be rest assured that the next few days will be very peaceful."

"Don't kid yourself, Shunsin. That kid can't save anyone." Naruto sneered. "He can't even save his own hide."

"You're too impatient, brat. Ichigo still has large potential within him, waiting to be tapped into." Yoruichi growled roughly. "I _will_ get him to master bankai in three days. Likewise, I don't exactly see the need for you to use this level of shikai on him. It's overkill."

" _This level_?" Naruto repeated, incredulous. "Didn't you hear me just now, lady? I'm only on level _two_! And he's already dropping dead! Besides, somebody needs to learn that he isn't the almighty superman, and realize that jumping into suicide battles isn't going to remove Rukia's execution sentence!" He then scowled, realizing that he was partially to be blamed for losing his anger in the fight. He was losing his cool, and he needed to regain control over himself, fast. Naruto exhaled deeply.

"It looks as though Shinko's not going to have any more blood anytime soon- unless I go through you first- so I'll just take my leave now." Naruto muttered darkly. He was already feeling a large migraine coming. Swiftly withdrawing his blade out from the folds of Yoruichi's ripped and burnt cloths, he resealed Shinko back to its original compact form and slid it back into its sheath with practiced ease.

Both Ichigo and Yoruichi visibly relaxed as the pressure from the effect Shinko's first Hell Circle lifted. But the effects of his shikai still remained- the air surrounding them was extremely dry and crisp, and the foul stench of burnt flesh, metal and cloth still lingered around the area. Naruto turned to leave, eyebrows furrowed in displeasure, and spotting a deep frown on his face.

"What?" Ichigo hissed, nursing his wounds from the ground, as he sensed Naruto's gaze landing on him. "You have something to say, Shinigami _Uzumaki_?"

"Tatsumaki and Chinoike are activated by default upon entering shikai. These two are Shinseihiko's most basic abilities. To think that you'd be overwhelmed by them is too pathetic to the point of being pitiful. The best part? I could've just killed you off without even releasing my zanpakuto. And I'm just a lowly _fourth seat_." Naruto snorted. "You'd better train real hard throughout these three days Ichigo, 'cuz I can't even imagine you fighting off Byakuya in this state you're in, forget the nine other captains and their lackeys."

Ichigo's teeth gritted hard at the volley of insults Naruto had thrown onto him, but he glared back with determined, furious eyes- eyes that held resolve that Naruto knew was going to send Ichigo into a bout of non-stop vigorous training for the next three days. Young male teenagers had their pride to uphold after all.

Satisfied that Ichigo was properly motivated and going to get out of his hair until the big day arrived, Naruto turned and left the area quickly with shunpo, without even a backwards glance. Shinko had healed most of his wounds, so he was just planning to get a quick shower, do some fast wrapping up, and start on his second itinerary on his agenda- Aizen hunting.

* * *

The next two days passed in a flash, most probably due to the fact that a hell lot of stuff happened altogether at once. To Naruto's relief, Ishida, the last able member of the ryoka team was taken out by Tousen, not before he dealt serious damage to the creepy captain Kurotsuchi. By then Naruto had successfully broke through all seals, leaving his captain with the tedious and delicate task of replicating the signatures for the ward.

As he left to allow his captain to busy himself with the seals, Naruto had spent the rest of the night trying to console an irate Toushiro, who was still steaming like a boiling kettle after the little skirmish he had with his fellow captain, Ichimaru Gin. His morning was spent tiresomely scrutinizing every crack and corner of the fifth division, tracking down Aizen's reiatsu, and meticulously combing down all the routes it had trailed off to.

The most intriguing but nauseating lead was the one that brought him all the way down to Central 46 Chambers- whereby dozens of bloodied corpses littered the compound, surrounded by the foul stench of decay and death. It was a massacre, and one of the most distasteful and revolting Naruto had ever seen in his life.

As Naruto surveyed the filthy scene that had obviously happened _weeks_ ago, he could practically feel the level of his Aizen Hate Meter shooting up several notches, bypassing the 'Watch Out' zone and entering the 'Must Eliminate' zone. In fact, he was pretty sure that the bulb at the tip was close to exploding.

But to his immense displeasure, he couldn't find anything noteworthy, nor did he detect any signs of Aizen's presence, and left just as quietly as he had come. Numerous reiatsu fluctuations were all over Seireitei, which was thrown into complete disarray as Shinigamis fought, not the ryoka, but themselves. Restless captains and lieutenants were apparently quick to use this rare opportunity to release their almost frequently suppressed reiatsu.

Rolling his eyes at the ridiculousness of these bored Shinigami, Naruto sharpened his senses further, to detect another of Aizen's reiatsu mark to start a fresh trail. He had little to nothing left to do anyway- Ukitake was the only one who could handle the last and final stage of releasing the Shihoin Shield, and Naruto was neither a captain nor a vice-captain, so he could not attend the execution.

But he halted, as he felt Ukitake's reiatsu fluctuate, signaling that he was ready. Naruto wiped away the sleep from his baggy tired eyes, and started sprinting for all that he was worth towards the large, towering and imposing Sokyouku hill.

A minute away from the hill, Naruto missed a shunpo, lost his balance and stumbled slightly, as he was overwhelmed by the sheer pressure of the reiatsu force that had suddenly broken out from above the hill. He staggered forwards, lowering down all of his enhanced senses as fast as possible, as the whole power that was building up of the top of the hill was about to drive Shinko- and himself- into a mad drunken rampage.

As he tried to control the sudden bloodlust within him- one that he hadn't felt for almost his entire stay in Soul Society- Naruto was dimly aware that fierce fighting had broken out on top the hill. Numerous reiatsu build ups, bright flashing lights of released kido spells and awakened zanpakuto, and the clanging of steel against steel. If he hadn't tuned down his ultra-perception a minute later, Naruto knew that probably wouldn't have been able to control the caged beast within him. It had been so long- too long for the both of them- since they had felt the heated tension of a wild battlefield. They wanted in.

The time had finally came, and both Shinko and himself were greedy for blood. More specifically, Aizen's blood. Naruto skidded to a stop as a bunch of black clad men blocked his path. His eyes swept through them quickly- only about ten of them, easily identifiable as unranked shinigami members from their impersonalized nondescript zanpakuto at their sides. He frowned. "I don't know who you guys are, but I obviously outrank all of you here. Get out of my way, I'm in a foul mood right now."

" We're acting on orders of the Captain Commander." The apparent leader of the group said. "Fourth seat of the Thirteenth division, Uzumaki Naruto. We are to immobilize all members of the thirteenth and seventh seats, for your interference with Kuchiki Rukia's execution."

'_Busted,' _Naruto thought foully. _'So we couldn't make a clean escape from the old man after all, huh, Ukitake-taichou?'_He turned towards the shinigami standing in front of him. "From what you've said, it sounds like Rukia managed to avoid her execution. I'm going to carry out our plans of sending her away from Seireitei. If you still insist on stopping me, then be rest assured that I'll show you no mercy."

"You might be higher ranked then us, Uzumaki-dono. But even so, you won't be able to keep up with this amount of numbers." The leader said, withdrawing his katana. Appearing on every side with well placed shunpo, were about a three hundred men, each with their katana drawn, encircling him, preventing him from escaping. Naruto didn't even blanch the slightest from the sudden increase in numbers.

"Hmm. Amusing." Naruto smirked. "But I'll have you know that it'll take much more than a measly three hundred of you to stop me. It pains me to be fighting my own kind, so as your superior, why don't I give you a little advice before we get the fight started?" Naruto cocked his head to the side as he regarded all the tensed, seething shinigami in front of him coolly. "Coordinate your movements. Charge in as a group. And attack me with all you've got." Naruto's smirk was quick to turn into a sneer.

And he was flashing off in a second, Shinko withdrawn and clutched tightly in his hand, swinging down and hungrily biting its blade down into the closest human flesh it could sink into. With a single swipe, Naruto had landed five men onto the ground, motionless and splattering blood on the hard earthen soil. He licked off the droplets of blood that had splattered onto his cheeks. The grin that he wore on his face now held a sinister gleam from within them.

"Because if you don't," Naruto continued from where he left off darkly. "I'm gonna kill you."

* * *

Aizen was feeling simply ecstatic, giddy with joy and delight at the moment. He had finally done it. He had finally laid his hands on it. The small hexagonal object that lay in the center of his clutched palms, the Hougyoku, the orb of distortion, was finally his. His hard work for the past few years, for the past hundred over years, had finally come into fruition.

Nothing could destroy Aizen's elation at the moment. Not even the determined but idiotically flimsy sixth squad lieutenant. Not even the foolishly weak mortal child who was stupidly overconfident with is non-existent abilities. Not even the irritating ants that were starting to swarm up around him, refusing to budge even though he could squash them without a second thought. He was invincible, he was absolute, and nothing could stop him nor dampen him, not even _him_.

"_AIZEN_!"

Aizen smiled as the person he was thinking of appeared just then, his funny red sword seething just as badly as its master was. His sole pest had finally arrived on the scene, panting from his sprint, clothes rumpled, torn, and messy, but otherwise unscathed.

"Good job catching up with us, Uzumaki-kun." Aizen greeted with false warmness, hands spread out in mocking welcome. "I would've expected you to arrive earlier, with your extra-fine perceptive abilities, but don't worry, these things do tend to happen once in awhile."

Uzumaki completely ignored his goading, and didn't rise to his bait. Instead, his eyes flickered to survey the scene that surrounded him, taking in the bloodied and bruised form of Ichigo, Renji, Byakuya, Rukia and Komamura. "You did all this…" He muttered angrily. "You did all of this! Everything was all your doing!"

"Yes, I was the one who had planned everything out." Aizen curled his lips into a distasteful smile. "It was high time for me to start clearing out the trash."

"I'll kill you!" The blond boy roared, sprinting straight towards Aizen. The latter didn't even blink, and neither did he move from his spot. In a split second, Tosen was already standing before him, zanpakuto drawn out, and blanketing Naruto in a field of pitch black darkness, stopping the other's blind reckless charge.

"_Bankai__: __Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kōrogi."_

"Get out of my way, you ugly little piece of turd." The Uzumaki's voice growled out from beneath the black void. "I'm only after that bastard's blood. If you still insist on standing in my way, then I'll cut you down along him."The spiritual pressure that built up from within the enclosing bankai skyrocketed up to a full time high immediately after, as though the boy was trying to prove his point. Aizen smiled. He was right. The kid had a lot of hidden potential, buried deep within, locked and unwilling to be unleashed.

Ever since they had first laid eyes on each other, Aizen knew that his kid was hiding something. Something that he guarded so zealously and protectively. Something that was meant for only his own self to know. And Aizen was sure that it was power. Raw potential that he was afraid to tap into. Many times he had tried for the past sixty or so years to get Uzumaki to break, to no avail. It was heavily fortified, deeply obscured, unreachable and unbreakable.

The boy had an almost too perfect intuition, and a ferociously keen sense. He had been mistrustful of Aizen right from the start. He had seen through most of Aizen's schemes, broken some of them, making him take long routes around his plans. He might've been able to halt almost each and every of Aizen's schemes, if it weren't for the fact that he did not have enough rank nor trust to do so. Aizen had made use of this, covering up his tacks meticulously with his rank and the law. Every since the boy stepped foot into Seireitei, he had been nothing but a nuisance and a fly- harmless, yet infuriating.

But today, Aizen had finally found the key. And he was going to use it to break open Pandora's box.

"You can try, Uzumaki-kun." Aizen answered calmly from outside Tosen's bankai created vacuum. "But to you, who have held everything back for the past few decades, it'll be a big pity to blow your cover now, wouldn't it?"

"I don't care about that shit anymore. I don't care about what might happen to me later on. Ranks, subordination, rules and laws… I've closed my eyes to those useless things." Uzumaki replied calmly, his voice echoing out loudly from within Tosen's bankai. "Right now, I can only see two things. My friends whom you've just slashed… and your dead body."

"Then we'll just have to see if you can prove this hallucination of yours true." Aizen replied. "Kaname." Tosen had gotten to work immediately after the signal, if the indication of the light scuffling of feet and the scent of blood lingering in the air proved anything to go by. "Uzumaki, after all, you rely too much on your senses. How does it feel like to lose all of them in one go?"

"Stop… screwing around!" Aizen started to frown as the Uzumaki's voice turned rough, almost guttural. "If you're not going to take me seriously, then I'll force you to! Eighth Circle-_Shiraike Jigoku_!" There was a large burst of spiritual pressure, and a large gust of hot air, and before Aizen knew what was happening, Tosen's bankai had dissolved immediately, fading out of existence to reveal an extremely scorched, blackened and smoking gorge, that certainly hadn't been there before. Tosen had obviously been caught in the furious explosion, as he lay by the edge of the large crater; body covered in painful third degree burns.

"Now that all interference has been gone…" Naruto spoke up from the center of the crater. Unlike the rest of his surroundings, he was relatively unscathed, and sporting only a few scratches on his forearms. He cracked his neck and readied his sword. "I'm going to start beating you up real bad."

"Fascinating indeed. You shielded yourself with Bakudo 39, _Enkosen, _before you exploded the area around you. From the looks of it, Kaname managed to dodge in time, but he underestimated the blast range. If he was just a step closer towards the center, he would undoubtedly have been burnt to death." Aizen commented casually. "But effective though it maybe, that attack of yours had just wasted away all your spiritual power. Uzumaki-kun, it would be futile to fight me in the state that you're in. You won't be able to defeat me."

"Wanna test that theory of yours out?" Naruto sneered back, exposing longer than usual canines. His eyes were hard, and gleaming with bloodlust and undiluted rage. They were locked solely onto Aizen's unmoving form.

"Need me to step in, Aizen-taichou?" Gin spoke up from behind him, hand held at the ready on his wakizashi-like zanpakuto's hilt. The silver haired man was tensed up at the unexpected hurdle they had bumped into, and he no longer wore his usual fox-like grin on his face.

"No need to worry, Gin. I can handle this boy by myself. Step by the side if you don't wish to get caught up in this fight." Aizen replied coolly. He turned to face Naruto. "I've always been very interested in clashing swords with you. It seems like I'll finally get the chance to do so today. So come at me, Uzumaki-kun. Prove to me that my assumptions about you are correct."

"Sorry, but I'm not just gonna prove them correct, and I have no intentions of meeting your expectations." Naruto hissed, charging up his blade with reiatsu, dampening the air surrounding them, and forcing off strong gusts of wind that sent his robes and hair whipping around wildly. "I'm going to _exceed_ them. _Bankai_: Ninth Circle_- Kinryuu Jigoku_: _Hiiro Gouka_ _Shinseihiko_."

Red surrounded Aizen's vision for the entire moment, before slowly fading away to reveal a thick circle of condensed scarlet, and very visible reiatsu. Aizen watched, fascinated, as the reiatsu slowly took form, compressing itself tightly around its master's body, engulfing it, cloaking it in a sea of deep red hues. It had also took up a distinctively fox-like silhouette, with pointed ears and a long, lazily swishing brush-like tail. Never had he seen a bankai this unique, nor a reiatsu this potent. It was so thick and concentrated, it couldn't even have been considered spiritual energy anymore- it was liquid, almost nearing molten state, almost resembling red hot magma.

Naruto took a step forward, and Aizen was dimly aware of the sudden paralysis that took over his body for a split second. It seemed like it was another unique ability of the Uzumaki's zanpakuto- Gin was shivering uncontrollably beside him, eyes fixated solely on the demonic form that stood in front of him, cold sweat droplets forming on the surfaces of his exposed skin. _Fear_, Aizen realized, regaining his movement. The Uzumaki's Zanpakuto had the capability of generating fear, and strike it into the hearts of its opponents. _What a pretentious ability._

Naruto was now completely shielded by his blood red reiatsu, which clung around his form protectively, following his every movement. Aizen noted that the coat had taken on the properties of the blade of its Shikai- melting down anything and everything that stood in its path, from the ground below it, to the air surrounding it. Just standing at this distance, Aizen could already feel the vast amount of heat the bankai was generating, and yet it seemed that the master in the center was unharmed. Naruto's figure was visible through the reiatsu cover, unburned and untouched. It was the ultimate defense- a coat that completely shielded the user from all angles, scorching down anything that came into close contact with it at all times, until the bankai is released. The user was literally untouchable.

"Don't put me in the same scale as where you put all those small fries you've been fighting with up to now." Naruto hissed, brandishing Shinko's final released form- a large double bladed scythe, its metal coating gleaming, its color a deep hue of blood red scarlet. "Since you've made me come this far, I'll show you that I'm on a completely different level from them."

It was unjustifiable that a lowly being like the Uzumaki was able to attain a zanpakuto with this much power behind it. Aizen was certain that this red coat of his was the only reason why the blond was able to advance this far- it was all due to his damn good luck of getting a strong spirit, just like the young captain of the tenth division. Aizen admitted that he was feeling a tinge of envy- but that was that and nothing more. He wasn't someone who was held down materialistic objects such as zanpakuto.

In a flash, Naruto disappeared from his position, and reappeared in front of Aizen, swinging down his large blood red scythe in a large vertical slash. Without even blinking, Aizen side stepped neatly, causing the blade to come crashing down onto the ground, throwing up large pieces of rubble as it did so. Aizen locked eyes with the blond for a brief moment, smirking tauntingly as he realized that the other actually wanted him dead so badly, he was quickly losing all of his rationality and logic. He recognized that by the way the Uzumaki's eyes were gleaming ferociously, bloodlust clearly shining through them. These sort of people were the easiest, but also the most mundane, to handle. They weren't even people anymore- they were beasts, fighting only using their instinct, and fueled only by their hatred.

As expected, the enraged blond was too easy to read. He followed up by slashing his blade back upwards, then horizontally, never stopping, never hesitating. Naruto persisted through, and engaged him in a series of wild yet elaborate and precise swings. But Aizen simply dodged each swipe with as little movement as usual, his taunting smirk never leaving his face. "You say that you're on a level higher than the others, but I don't see much difference between you and your friends who are lying on the ground behind you." Aizen said deridingly. "Certainly, your strikes have more power and precision behind them, but there wasn't even a need for me to take out my zanpakuto. You disappoint me with your weak feeble attacks, Uzumaki-kun."

To his surprise, Naruto grinned in reply, eyes locked sharply onto his face. Aizen felt his confusion turn slowly into numb surprise as Naruto swung his right arm up suddenly, too quickly for a hand that was wielding a heavy and outsized weapon. Aizen's eyes widened at the sudden speed of the swing, and hurriedly withdrew Kyouka Suigetsu from its scabbard in an effort to block, bracing himself for the hit. _'I underestimated his strength. This fast a swing would usually have been impossible to pull off with only one hand. Was he holding back the entire time?' _The hit never came. The hand that swung past his face was empty, devoid of any weapon. _'What-'_

Naruto's grin only grew wider. As realization stroke, Aizen glanced down quickly to see Naruto's left arm was already in a swift descend, clutching tightly onto his bankai, whose blade was dropping, picking up speed with the momentum of the swing, the force of the hand pushing behind it, and the natural pull of gravity. _'Since when did he switch his weapon over to his other hand-'_ There was no time to ponder over this thought, with the blade inches away from cleaving him into two. Aizen knew that he couldn't block in time, and he used shunpo to get out of path of the blade.

"It looks like you've resorted to using some petty tricks, but it's useless. You couldn't even lay a scratch on me." Aizen said, after putting some distance between himself and Naruto. He was covered in a light sheen of sweat, but that was to be expected after staying in such close contact with the fiery red coat for a minute or two. "I won't fall for such foolish, desperate tricks a second time."

"What are you talking about? I made you draw out your zanpakuto, didn't I?" Naruto replied cockily. He pointed his scythe towards Aizen. "Let me tell you this- bastards that fight by predicting their opponent's movements won't stand a chance against me. I've kicked each and every one of their asses when they tested their luck out on me." Naruto sprinted into a charge again, attempting to draw this fight into a close combat one- his actual forte. "That was a nice appetizer. Shall we get started on the main course now?"

The second clash they had was much more challenging than their first. Naruto was right about the first being a warm up. It was as though his long forgotten battle skills were finally reawakening, even though the blond was currently a veteran shinigami who was dispatched on high ranking missions. Aizen found himself actually _trying_ to dodge the incoming consecutive attacks, sometimes parrying, sometimes dodging, but he was never even given an opening by the other to go on the offensive.

Aizen was savoring this battle to the fullest. It wasn't everyday that someone was able to keep him this entranced in a battle for this long. Naruto's fighting style was unique, so unique it couldn't be anything more than one that was self-thought of by a genius. Each swing of his scythe was followed up immediately after by another, but the timings and directions of the follow-ups were exceptionally varied- as though the blond was just making up new moves on the spot, and going with whichever one he felt like using. It was a suicide style of fighting to use, yet the boy before him was pulling it off perfectly. And Aizen admitted the effectiveness of that style- he could never predict where the next attack would be coming from, and he was constantly kept on his toes by having to look out in all directions.

But for the moment, being on the defensive was enough for Aizen. For with each strike that the blond made, and each time that his crimson blade failed to draw blood, the blonde's eyes grew darker, and his reiatsu flared higher, fueled up by his frustrations and fury. Naruto seemed to have sensed his amusement, for he glared up at the other man, and let out an annoyed growl. "Don't get so cocky you bloody faggot, I'm not done yet!"

Aizen smirked as the blond raised the stakes, this time throwing in punches and kicks along with his erratic swings, adding to the unpredictability factor, and making Aizen less able to dodge, as he found himself blocking with Kyouka Suigetsu more and more. He was sweating heavily from the heat the cloak was giving off, especially since the coated attacks usually get too close to his body. Naruto pressed on heavily without stopping, something particularly inconceivable to the thought, since he had been using up a lot of reiatsu to charge up the coat of his bankai. The stakes was raised higher yet again- as Naruto now alternated his swings with the back of his scythe, which bore a wickedly sharp end.

Aizen simply kept blocking the hits away easily, just barely, and using shunpo to escape attacks that he wasn't able to avoid by hand. Naruto would then counter with shunpo, never releasing the tight distance they had between themselves, sometimes appearing behind him, sometimes above, a swing always at the ready. Aizen would dodge the blade, the fists, and the kicks, and the whole furious dance would begin all over again.

"You're proving yourself to be an interesting challenge, Uzumaki-kun. But know that you won't be lasting long if backups don't arrive soon." Aizen spoke up between an interval from Naruto's furious slashes, hoping to distract the other, so as to place some distance between them. It was entertaining trying to defeat Naruto in his best, but it wasn't fair to let the blond keep all the advantage for throughout the entire battle.

"I've never been fighting alone." Naruto replied without pausing in his attack the slightest, to Aizen's dismay. "All this while, ever since I graduated, I've never fought alone, not even for a single time. Even now, the only reason why I'm able to stand up against you for so long is because I've got friends who are pushing me from behind."

"Seeing as they're currently lying helplessly on the ground, with you shielding them from harm, I can't say that I concur with that statement of yours." Aizen replied, eyes narrowing, frowning in disgust. "Strong humans only need to fight for themselves, with themselves. Friends, dependency and bonds with others are just earthly attachments that pull you down, suffocate you, making you weak."

"That's pitiful." Naruto said, smiling almost sympathetically, to Aizen's great irk. "Right now, I'm fighting with Shinko behind my back. With the knowledge that I'm protecting my friends with every move I make. Aren't you attacking me together with your zanpakuto? Don't you lift your sword to protect your comrades, your subordinates?"

"That is just foolish thinking on you mortals' part." Aizen said. "You weigh yourself down with idiotic terms, allowing yourself to be led by what you perceive to be bonds. But let me tell you this- humans will only act out of profit for themselves, nothing more, and nothing less. It is such a shame that we cannot see on equal terms, Uzumaki-kun."

"Heh. Ok, I'll give up on talking some sense out of your screwed up brain. You should hear yourself talking. '_Foolish mortals?_' I don't see a halo appearing over _your_ head." Naruto conceded. "Since words won't enter that muddled skull of yours, I'll beat it into your body instead. Your type will only thoroughly open your ears until _after_ you get the living daylights beaten out of you."

Aizen was barely able to dodge the incoming projectile that had suddenly shot out at him. It flew past so speedily, grazing his left cheek slightly, leaving a small trail of blood. Turning his head slightly, Aizen saw that it was the tail of Naruto's bankai coat. "You can't afford to be looking elsewhere now!" Naruto called out, smashing his scythe down over him quickly. Aizen shunpo away, Naruto hard on his heels, the back of his reiatsu coat rippling to produce three more identical tails, making four tails in total.

The four wasted no time in launching themselves hungrily at Aizen, each missing and crashing down onto the ground, solid enough to gouge into the earth and send rocks flying, despite it being made up from a mass of reiatsu. If it wasn't enough, Naruto was after him as well, with his incessant fighting combo, not even giving Aizen enough time to stay in the same spot for a second.

Aizen realized what Naruto had meant- he was taking on not one, but two fighters at the same time- the Uzumaki, and his zanpakuto's spirit, who controlled the erratic movements of the tails. Fighting with your spirit was one thing, but fighting together alongside your spirit was another. Aizen had never heard of such a thing happening before. He was simply so overwhelmed by such a thought, that the fact that Naruto was able to pull off something as absurd as this out, and utilize it perfectly and flawlessly, that he wasn't able to dodge the five simultaneous slashes completely.

Aizen backpedaled, clutching his left shoulder which held a gashing wound across it. Naruto sneered at him. "I have some sad news for you, Assbag. You took so long to come at me seriously, Shinko's getting all fired up. I haven't let him out to play for a long long time you know. He's getting claustrophobic being cooped up in that cage." As he said so, two more tails sprouted out, whipping wildly in the air, almost too happily. "See what I mean? You'd better take this seriously before it gets to nine."

"I see. That'll be a hassle for me." Aizen agreed calmly, and they both flew at each other again, this time both taking the offensive, and neither bothering to block. Naruto, to his immense frustration, still hadn't been able to land a hit, nor a burn on the other. On the other hand, Aizen had successfully nicked Naruto several times, but each gash he had landed had healed almost instantly. They both clashed weapons for a few more moments, none relenting to vanquish their footing over to the other.

"You're a tough one, aren't you? Is your skin made of tungsten metal or something? 'Cause the last time I checked, Shinko could melt anything weaker then iron. " Naruto hissed, finally pausing in his attacks to take a breather. Aizen immediately took the chance to put a considerable amount of distance between them. "I've been attacking you… with a special style I haven't been using since a long time… without a stop… and with my bankai activated for the entire time. I'll understand if Tatsumaki doesn't affect you, but why the hell aren't you even scalded?"

"I should be the one saying those words, Uzumaki-kun. Your fighting style involves the usage of your entire body, and you've been holding up your bankai for this long. A normal person should have been out of energy by now. What exactly are you?" Aizen asked calmly. "Or should I phrase that out differently? How about, where exactly did you come from when you were alive?"

"If you're thinking that you'll be able to find others like me out there, then don't waste your breath trying." Naruto answered foully, anger level rising again at Aizen's nosy and somewhat personal question. He shook his head as he tried to clear up his thoughts of his past life. "You could say that I'm one of a kind."

"I see. That's such a pity." Aizen replied in turn. "Then that means that you are of no use to me anymore." Aizen pointed one finger almost lazily at Naruto. "Hadou 91. _Senjuu Kouten Taihou_."

It happened all too fast for Naruto to comprehend. As the words of Aizen's kidou spell flew out from his lips, Naruto's vision was engulfed in a bright pink light. Before he knew what had hit him, excruciating pain was overwhelming his entire body, piercing though him, crushing him up, bypassing Shinko's thick cloak as though it was mere water. The explosion that followed after had been worse- Naruto had wielded fire, had been caught in explosions, burned by katon jutsu many times considering he sparred frequently with Uchihas, but never had he felt this roasted before. He could practically feel the blast eating away at his skin. Naruto heard himself screaming in agony, an unearthly, animalistic howl of pain.

And it was all over in a moment, as Naruto collapsed, third degree burns covering up every inch of his skin, some long burnt away, revealing raw muscles underneath, other parts black, roasted, decayed and dead. Aizen watched disdainfully as his former opponent fell to the ground with a loud solid thud. "You got too ahead of yourself, Uzumaki-kun. While I did say that I find you to be an interesting challenge, you are still leagues away from trying to compare yourself to my level."

Aizen was goading over his victory, goading over the fact that he had taken away the Hougyoku, over the fact that he had bested over Naruto's futile attempts at stopping him. He took his time, ambling slowly towards the fallen blond, a smug smile on his face, eyes savoring every injury he had placed on the other. Finally, he came to a stop, looming over the burnt unmoving body. He paused. "Oh? It looks like you deserve some credit after all, Uzumaki-kun. You escaped from the brunt of the explosion with a nicely executed Shunpo. Thanks to your quick reflexes, you still have some life left in you. But it's all going to come over to an end very soon."

"Y-You bastard-" Naruto croaked out, too weak to even lift his head off the ground to glare at that man he hated so badly.

"It's a big pity that Seireitei got to you first." Aizen continued blithely. "You have so much potential. Potential which are being used for the wrong reasons. Which is why I can't let them have you." Aizen swing his sword down. "I enjoyed what little time we've spent together, Uzumaki Naruto. Goodbye."

Kyoka Suigetsu swung down, swiping sharply through the air, sinking itself deep into its intended target.

Naruto closed his eyes, as darkness swallowed up his vision, throwing him into a world of vast blackness for the second time in his life.

* * *

-Was it just me, or was Gin being ignored?-

Disappointing chapter, I know. Naruto was waaay to lenient, and well, look what he ended up as. Maybe he should've just kicked Ichigo's ass to hell and out, but that would mean destroying canon timeline completely, and I don't have enough creative cells in my brain to patch up a whole new story from there.

But for now, I can only say that Naruto will be up and kicking more ass/es in the near future. He's the main character of this story! He has an ego the size of the Hokage Mountain! He won't be defeated by an _assbag_ like Aizen!

Let me clarify Naruto's zanpakuto. Shinsenhiko, in its shikai state, has eight special abilities, with the first being the weakest, and the ninth being its bankai- the strongest. Naruto calls each ability a _Hell Circle_, the first and second circles being a default ability, that is activated thought the entire time shikai or bankai is unleashed.

First Circle: _Tatsumaki Jigoku_ (Spout Hell)- Strikes 'fear' onto opponents who clashes swords with Shinko. Similar to how some shinigami use their reiatsu, but less taxing and more potent and effective. But like the later, those with equally high reiatsu will not be much affected by it.

Second Circle_: Chinoike Jigoku_ (Blood Pond Hell)- Constantly heats the sword up at a very temperature- high enough to melt through iron.

Eighth Circle: _Shiraike Jigoku_ (White Pond Hell)- Melts down everything within an extremely large radius.

Ninth Circle- and also bankai-: _Kinryuu Jigoku_ (Golden Dragon Hell)- _Hiiro Gouka Shinsenhiko_ (Scarlet Hellfire Shinsenhiko)  
Powers of the first eight circles are amplified through the Fox's Cloak- which is similar to Naruto's old jinchuuriki one. _Tatsumaki_ will affect anyone within a hundred meters, and _Chinoike_ gains a higher and faster heating rate. The tails act as a timer- measuring how long it will take for the bankai to awaken fully, reaching full potential. Shinko is able to control the tails when necessary; otherwise they just act as a defensive shield. Naruto is not harmed by the cloak, nor does he have control over it.

I am not ashamed in admitting that I swiped those names from the nine 'hells' of Beppu. Big Revelation: Shinko's special attacks were named after hot springs.

_Suzumushi Tsuishiki: Enma Kōrogi- _Cricket Final Form: Devil Cricket  
Bakudo 39, _Enkosen- _Summons a shield of condensed reiatsu to block opponents' attacks.  
Hadou 91. ___Senjuu Kouten Taihou_**- **Summons several spears of light that are all fired towards the same focal point where the intended target resides. The culminating explosion is exceedingly devastating.

Feel free to message me if you've spotted any mistakes, or have any questions or suggestions about this chapter. I'll answer them if they don't risk plot spoilers.

Hoped you've enjoyed the chapter.

Until next time,

TenkuuBatsu.


	7. Dominación

**Chapter 7- Dominación**

* * *

"In the end, not even you, Uzumaki-kun, could stop me from achieving my ambitions." Aizen stated, as he withdrew his zanpakuto out from the collapsed body which was spread out in front of him. Flicking the blood off, splattering the drops across the ground, Aizen proceeded to slowly slide his sword back into his sheath.

It was a big disappointment. The only person whom he had actually held interest had proved to be a big waste of his time. Naruto had everything he needed to make himself a person worthy of standing on par with him- a powerful zanpakuto, large reiatsu reserves, good reflexes and instincts, and quick thinking. But it was such a pity that the boy had allowed himself to be held down by petty thoughts of friendship and trust. All that potential- wasted.

"You were never fit for the role of protector, Uzumaki-kun. Your zanpakuto was one made to kill, to attack, to destroy life. Which is why you could never grow stronger then you already was."Aizen continued mournfully. "You could've been much more then you are now. If only you'd chosen to follow me."

"U-Uzumaki!"

Aizen angled his head slightly to see a very defeated Kurosaki clawing towards them. "Oh? You're still not dead either, Kurosaki Ichigo?" he said bemusedly. "First trash, now garbage. Not to worry, I think that cleaning you off would be much more easier then Uzumaki-kun here." He started walking towards the ryoka, with every intention of wiping the brat off the surface of this plane- until he was halted by a loud crash, and a lethally sharp sword pointing at his throat.

"Don't move." The voice that deadly uttered those words was nostalgic indeed. Aizen stared coolly back into the saffron unblinking eyes of Shihoin Yoruichi. "If you move even a muscle-"

"Your head will roll." Finished the second squad captain with an equally flat voice. Petite though she was, the hand that held the blade at his neck was unwaveringly sturdy. Aizen was rather disappointed to see that those two women had made up. He had actually counted on them killing off each other.

"You've sure messed those kids up good, Aizen."Yoruichi hissed angrily from under him. Her narrowed, cat-like eyes were darting from one fallen ryoka to the other, to a petrified Rukia, an almost on the verge of collapsing Ichigo, and finally to the crippled, charred and unmoving form of Naruto. "I should've guessed that it was you all along."

"Don't take it too hard, Shunshin." Aizen said calmly. "Only a single person realized my real intentions without me telling- Uzumaki Naruto. Needless to say, see where he'd ended up now."

"Your punishment won't be light, Aizen." Soifon stated, eyes hard.

"It probably won't." Aizen agreed. "If you actually manage to capture me, that is."

"What are you-" Soifon's next few words were interrupted by a loud crash. Looking up, her eyes widened as three gigantic towering figures came crashing into view, bringing down buildings that collapsed, folding over their heavy bulk. The three of them were undoubtedly recognizable as the northern, southern, and eastern gatekeepers of Seireitei. And from the threatening manner by which they headed over towards the bloodied battlefield, Soifon was sure that they were on Aizen's side.

"So what will you do now?" Aizen spoke up, breaking the shocked silence. The smirk that was on his face definitely indicated that the bastard was enjoying this. "Not even the two of you can manage to come after me, and fend off all of them at the same time, can you?"

"Yoruichi-sama, I will keep away the interferences. Please handle Aizen-" Soifon began, but was cut off by her mentor.

"No need." Yoruichi said, a grin already playing on her lips. "It looks like someone else as beat you to it." She cocked her head back to regard the two new signatures that had made their grand entrance, crashing down onto one of the gatekeepers. "Isn't that right, Kukaku?"

The smoke cleared to reveal Shiba Kukaku, longing lazily on the shoulder of the final western gatekeeper, Jidanbo. Kukaku glanced down amusedly at her former friend. "Yo, Yoruichi. I got really bored, so I decided to drop by after taking a walk."Her casual sentence was ruined by the serious gleam behind her eyes. No more words were wasted further, as the one-armed woman immediately got to work, blasted to oblivion a gatekeeper with a swiftly executed _Raikouhou_. Jidanbou had immediately followed up promptly after, socking the other two guards with his muscled fists. In one quick moment, the pair had effortlessly knocked out all three guards.

"Oops, sorry, Aizen-taichou. It looks like she got me." Gin's voice was snide, and despite his words, impenitent. His foxy smile was once more back on his face, sneering, as he was held back by his long time childhood friend, Matsumoto Rangiku.

"Give it up, Aizen. This is the end." Yoruichi said coldly, her fists pushing down tightly on Kyoka Suigetsu's hilt, forcing it shut inside its sheath, unable to be withdrawn. "You've sensed it by now, didn't you? We have you _completely surrounded_."

Aizen raised his head to regard the scene that unfolded before him. All available captains and their vice captains were littered loosely around himself, Tousen, and Gin, bodies tensed and eyes widened with betrayal and disbelief. Further words were no longer necessary. In Seireitei's eyes, Aizen had committed treason, and he would be doled out the proper punishment. Excuses were futile. Aizen couldn't help it- amidst all these tension, he smiled.

"What's so funny?" Yoruichi snarled, tightening her grip on him, flattening out every other plan the other was harboring on escaping.

"Ah. Sorry, but _it's time_." Aizen answered.

The foreboding tightness in her chest could not be ignored any longer. "Soifon, get away!" She barked harshly, as she quickly unlatched herself from the ex-captain. A beam of yellow light immediately engulfed Aizen a second after her student mirrored her actions, cracking the ground under the bespectacled man's feet. Yoruichi wiped off the sweat that trickled down her brow, her eyes still wide with disbelief at the sight that stood before her very eyes. _If I was a second too late, we would've been… _That strain of thought was too disconcerting to even carry on thinking it through.

Yoruichi glared up at the azure sky above her. True to her thoughts, a wide rip tore the sky into two, forced open by numerous pairs of bony elongated arms. White masked faces of creatures that everyone present knew all too well, made themselves visible through the dark hole, drawing disgruntled gasps, mostly from the vice-captains.

"_Menos Grande_!" Soifon hissed from beside her, absolutely nonplussed and disgusted at the idea that there would be hollows, of all creatures, in Seireitei, the sacred land of shinigami itself.

"Gillian!" Her huge sized vice-captain exclaimed from behind her, just as shocked. "Just how many of them are present?"

No one answered, as they continued to stare, transfixed at what Aizen, their former comrade had just done. A shinigami had sided with the hollows. Worse, he had actually gained control over Menos Grande themselves. Two more similar beams descended quickly, to scoop up Gin, and the fallen form of Tousen. Most of the vice-captains made a move to stop the trio's slow escape procession, withdrawing their zanpakutos and bracing themselves for a charge into the yellow beam, until they were halted by the potent reiatsu of their captain commander himself.

"That beam of light is called '_Negacion'_." The old man stated calmly, yet the shaking hands that clutched onto his staff betrayed his anger. "Once that light is cast, the area inside the light becomes a completely separate dimension, impenetrable from the outside. Aizen is no longer within our grasp. It is futile to chase him down now that it has come to this state."

"What are you trying to accomplish with this, Aizen?" Ukitake questioned, the usually gentle captain had his reiatsu bristling with anger, flaring up around him. Evidently, the other was riled up over the gruesome death and injuries of his precious fourth seat.

"Hmm." Aizen regarded the question with nonchalance. "To go higher."

"Have you fallen in the process, Aizen?" Yet another of the white-haired captain's infuriating questions was shot back almost immediately.

"You're too arrogant, Ukitake. No one starts at the top of the world." Aizen replied coolly, removing his spectacles off his face all too slowly. "Not you. Not me. Not even the gods themselves." With one hand, he crushed his glasses easily, scattering their shattered shards onto the ground. "But the unbearable vacancy of the throne in the sky is over." With another hand, he swiped back his hair, sweeping his fringe off his face. "From now on, I will be sitting on it."

"_**No**_."

All heads turned towards the source that had made the beastly, guttural noise. It had came from the shaking form of the Uzumaki- who was not as dead as Aizen had proclaimed him to be. He was shrouded once again in his red reiatsu cloak, even though his zanpakuto still lay, sheathed and sealed up by his side. No tails were visible, and the cloak seemed to have lost its viscosity from the time it had been used to battle Aizen. It was bubbling, frothing at the edges, as the blond shinigami staggered to his feet, almost drunkenly, nearly unconsciously. No one moved- _dared_ to move- to stop the enraged shinigami.

"_**I won't let it end this way. I won't let you escape from me**_."

The eyes of everyone who saw this sight widened perceptibly, Aizen's own pair included. The Uzumaki didn't look as though he was aware of whatever that was happening in the present at all, as he stumbled unsteadily towards the direction Aizen was in. Aizen felt his face cracking into a gleeful grin. This boy had proved his assumptions wrong once again. He had seen through each and every one of Aizen's hard thought-out schemes. He had managed to drive Aizen back for much longer than any other human had. He had managed to evade, though not successfully, one of Aizen's most tedious kidou spell. And now, he had risen to his feet, when Aizen had definitely stabbed through his heart.

On closer inspection, Aizen had realized why- his red cloak was regenerating him, the long arduous process of cellular reconstruction practically visible to everyone who observed the other's wounds. Black charred flesh fell out, giving way to raw red skin in seconds. The gaping hole in his chest was twisting, flesh growing, filing it up, and covering the no longer visible gap.

Naruto himself seemed insensible of this painful process, as he crossed the distance between them with each painful step. His eyes were glazed over, blank and lifeless, pupils flashing between red and blue, and the whisker tattoos on his cheeks were more pronounced than ever. What seemed to drive the blond forwards was now only sheer determination and willpower. It was obvious to everyone that the boy was otherwise running on empty.

"_**Aizen… Aizen will die. He will pay. I will deliver the rightful punishment he deserves onto him.**_"Naruto, no, the mere shell of Uzumaki Naruto hissed out, reiatsu flaring out wildly, as he growled out in his inhuman voice. His hatred was thick and chocking, and his wrath drew shivers from most of the vice-captains. "_**I won't let you go. I won't let you leave. Not until I shred your miserable body to tiny minuscule pieces and throw them into the nine fiery pits of hell**_."

And he was directly below Aizen's Negacion now, looking up, glaring at the other. Their eyes made contact, and Aizen felt a strong gush of murderous killing intent wash over him. Which was impossible, because he was now in a completely different plane of existence. The scarlet glare that held his gaze was not one from a human- it was a demon's. It was one that was practically oozing malevolent hatred, and undiluted bloodlust. Aizen wondered if it was his zanpakuto's spirit talking.

"Naruto. Get away from there. Aizen is no longer reachable. You'll just end up injuring yourself further." Ukitake finally spoke up, taking small cautious steps towards his subordinate. "Enough."

"_**It's not enough! The blood that he spilled isn't enough to make up for the blood that **_**we**_** spilled!**_" Naruto yelled, angry tears spilling out from the corners of his eyes, trickling down his cheeks. His eyes took a maniacal gleam; from both his outrage and his near mental instability. "_**I want him to bleed. I want him to bleed until a dry carcass is all that's left of him! There's not enough blood coming out from his disgusting hide!**_"

"And just what do you think you can do while you're in this state?" Ukitake shouted back. "Look at yourself- you're barely even managing to stand. What do you think you can accomplish when you're barely even thinking straight?"

"_**Watch me**_."Naruto growled, throwing himself directly into the Negacion. He was thrown backwards several feet upon contact, shocks rippling throughout his body, as he was tossed into the air, rolling to a painful stop a moment after. That did not dissuade him as he launched to his feet yet again, to deliver another futile tackle. He managed to stay in position a few seconds longer, which was long enough to force through a spike of red reiatsu, which wasted no time in launching itself hungrily at Aizen, to everyone's shock.

To Aizen's relief, it dissipated before it could even reach him, dissolved by the Negacion's force field wispily. "How-" Aizen shook his head. "It doesn't matter. You are no longer in any position to launch another similar attack." Naruto let loose a string of curses and snarls from below in response, as he pushed himself up, ignoring the spasms of the muscles of his forearms and legs.

"Naruto, Aizen's right. We'll get him another time." Ukitake tried reasoning once more. "It's pointless to lose your life here."

"_**I don't care!**_" Naruto screamed madly, clawing, punching, clanging away violently at the yellow beam, to no avail. His hands were hissing, scorched and steaming, but he continued his crazed attacks. "_**He hurt everyone. I swore that I'll never let my friends get injured ever again- and he took them down like they were houseflies, one after another. I won't forgive him. It's unforgivable!**_" Naruto paused, drawing in a large shaky breath. "_**Why the hell can't I even land a scratch on him?**_" He screamed in frustration, finally collapsing onto his knees, chest heaving heavily with large labored breaths.

"It's farewell, shinigami, and ryoka." Aizen said after a moment of pause. He held onto a certain orange boy's unwavering gaze. "Kurosaki Ichigo." He let the name roll smoothly out from his lips. "For a human, you certainly are interesting."

Ichigo simply glared back, bleeding profusely, clinging onto consciousness, too winded to even give a proper retort.

"We will meet again, Uzumaki Naruto." Aizen said, as he was nearly surrounded by the pitch black darkness of Hueco Mundo. "You are certainly too unique for me to simply ignore. It's such a pity that I didn't manage to discover your true potential sooner."

As the thin portal closed itself, Aizen could distantly hear a blood-curling howl in response, ringing inside his ears.

"_**Aizeeeen!**_"

* * *

Naruto yelled until his throat was hoarse. He screamed until his voice cracked, and his lips peeled off. He had never felt so useless since for very long time. He couldn't believe himself- despite all his big talk, despite all the energy and effort he had put into this battle, he didn't even manage to land a severe gash on Aizen. It was humiliating. Mortifying. And simply inconceivable that he had let something so extremely important escape his grasp. Hadn't he been preparing for this for the past sixty or so years?

He had been too cocky. He had underestimated Aizen's true strength. Today was supposed to be the day he took that bastard down, and end every other thing along with it. His plans had fallen to ruins at the very last stage. Right in front of his own eyes.

The other shinigami were anxiously hovering around him, uncertain of whatever they should do with him. The heat his cloak was emitting had prevented them from coming further, and the bestial growls and snarls of anger chased away most that do not wished to incur his wrath. To them, he was like a wild animal on a rampage- deadly, irrational, and unbalanced. It was all over. He was going to be taken into imprisonment, tortured, and most probably experimented on. He shuddered as the gloomy image of the _Ujimushi no Su, _the Maggot's Nest, flashed into view in his mind.

"_**No.**_" Naruto hissed, eyes wide. He was going to face it all over again. _Those eyes._ Rejection. Fear. Terror. "_**No. No, no, no, no…**_"

"Naruto. Don't worry so much about it. You'll have your chance to go up against him again real soon enough. And when that time comes, you won't be the only one fighting him. It's not over yet." His captain said softly, unflinching though he was in such close contact with Naruto. His smiled gently, a tinge of sorrow behind his eyes. "Rest up now. Thanks for your hard work; you've done much more then I could've ever asked of you."

Naruto turned his flickering red eyes towards his captain at those words, and he collapsed to the ground, cloak dissipating, falling like a marionette whose strings have all been cut. The relief team wasted no time in taking over and attending to the exhausted boy.

* * *

Naruto woke up to the tight feeling of suffocation. Sure enough, as his vision cleared, and he peered down under the sheets, his entire chest was bounded firmly by clean sheets of bandages, as was his upper arms, head, and palms. Groaning loudly at the pain that had suddenly assaulted him, Naruto immediately made to push himself out of bed and shunpo his way out of his current imprisonment, most probably a cell in the Maggot's Nest. There would be numerous guards along the way- there was absolutely no way Seireitei would take him lightly after witnessing what he could do.

The room he was in wasn't a hospital room like the ones back from Konoha, but it gave off the same distinct and foreboding sterilized atmosphere nonetheless. Naruto couldn't stand the cleanliness and _whiteness_ of everything- the white walls, the white floors, the white beds, the white cupboards, the white curtains, the white hair… Wait, what?

Naruto blinked, nonplussed, shaking his head fervently as the image of his captain frowning down at him didn't go away.

"Naruto, I think Unohana-taichou will be after your head if you undid all her hard work by trying to use your reiryoku at the state you're in now." Said the figure sitting in front of him sternly.

"Oh god, my hallucinations are reprimanding me." Naruto stated, wide eyed. "I must be in deep shit, aren't I?"

Ukitake's frown deepened. "Naruto, if you're trying to be funny, I'm not laughing. Your heart had stopped two times before Unohana-taichou got her wits together, and you fractured bones all over your body, with dislocated joints to boot. Even if you're hypothetically dead, you shouldn't be pushing your luck this far-"

"I stand corrected." Naruto spoke up, cutting off his captain's words.

"Excuse me?" Ukitake said blankly, not seeing where Naruto was going with this.

"It's not a hallucination- it's the real thing. That makes it a hundred times worse." Naruto moaned, dropping his head back onto his pillows with a thump. "But then, if taichou is here, then I must not be in much shit as I thought I would've been in."

"What makes you say that?" His captain questioned curiously.

"I thought, for sure, that I would've been thrown into the Maggot's Nest, or worse, after what I did that day." Naruto muttered tiredly. "_Gomen_, taichou, I couldn't control myself. Shinko was screaming for blood, and I was so angry, I allowed him to take control of my senses, and before I knew what was happening, I was on a bloodthirsty rampage-"

"Luckily for you, the Soutaichou has decided to let that matter slide." Ukitake interrupted Naruto's weak babbling. Naruto paused immediately, turning sharply to face his captain with bewildered eyes. The white-haired man allowed a small smile to grace his features. "In fact, he wanted you to take up a captain position within our ranks. We have three empty spots now, you know." He paused to let the words sink in, continuing as Naruto started spluttering with disbelief. "But of course, I turned him down. Kira, Hinamori, and Hisagi have yet to recover fully from their captains' sudden betrayal- giving them another superior almost immediately will not be healthy for them."

"T-Taichou, I-"Naruto chocked weakly, unable to form a single coherent sentence. "Why? Aizen got away, and I wasn't able to-"

"You held him down long enough for reinforcements to arrive, and displayed yourself to be more than proficient with your bankai." Ukitake said calmly. "If not for the fact that I need you as my vice-captain, I would have relented to Genryuusai-sensei suggestions."

"Vice-captain?" Naruto repeated dumbly. "But I don't want-"

"No more buts. At this stage, it's either you take up the 'dreaded' mantle of vice-captain, or a captain position with an overly emotional lieutenant."Ukitake smiled in triumph at the feat he had finally accomplished after many a long years. "I suppose you know what's best for you."

"I'm not worthy of that position." Naruto said dully. " I knew that that bastard Aizen would come up with something like this one day- I didn't know exactly what, but still, I shouldn't have let him slip through so easily. If it was Kaien-" Naruto broke off mid-sentence, and shook his head, trying to clear up his jumbled thoughts.

"You underrate yourself. Kaien wouldn't even have lasted that long, considering he didn't have a bankai, nor was he as particularly prejudiced against Aizen as you were." Ukitake said amusedly. "Speaking of which, as your captain, why didn't I even knew that you had achieved bankai? And for quite a long time too- seeing how you managed to wield it efficiently for more than five minutes. When did you manage to complete it?"

Naruto shrugged, almost despondently, shirking away from his captain as far as he could go- namely, not very far. "To answer your first question taichou, it was because I didn't want to get promoted. To answer the second- well, it was the day you started badgering me to take Kaien's seat." He glanced up to see a spluttering Ukitake. "Don't you go collapsing on me now!" He yelled shrilly, half-panicking upon seeing his captain's ashen face. "It's all in the past! I'm already in the friggin' seat now!"

"So that reiatsu change that day was because you obtained bankai, and not shikai?" Ukitake groaned, massaging his temple. "I feel that I'm a failure of a captain, not even knowing that much. At least Kuchiki-taichou's in the same boat as me."

"Heh, yeah, it took that redhead long enough alright. Actually, with all the booms and crashes in the sixth's division backyard, I'd expected Byakuya to figure it out sooner." Naruto scratched absently at the bandages that covered his left cheek as he peered out of the window. "So how's the rest 'em? When I arrived at Soukyoku Hill, I could still faintly sense everyone's reiatsu, so I wasn't too worried about them… all I could see was that smug bastard with that pug-like smirk on his face." Naruto made a face.

"They'd only suffered from external injuries, so they're all patched up and just as good a new." Ukitake informed his subordinate, who heaved a soft sigh of relief. He smiled softly in return. "Well, it's been a week since all that happened, so that much amount of recovery is to be expected."

"A week huh…" Naruto repeated dazedly as he stared outside. If he squinted, he could make out the faint outline of the Soukyoku hill in the far distance. "I guessed I really did outdo myself. Because normally, it'd only take me two days to achieve a full recovery."

"In fact, the ryoka are leaving today. I'm going to open a Senkaimon and send them off in awhile. Do you want to accompany me? You were interested in that kid, Kurosaki Ichigo, weren't you?" Ukitake questioned.

Naruto shook his head. "No, I'd only thought that he'd be useful as a distraction." He confessed somewhat blandly. "Let's just say that he and his gang have exceeded my expectations of them. We weren't on good terms from the start- so there's nothing to say to them."

"Really nothing at all?" Ukitake prodded his subordinate, one slender eyebrow raised questioningly. "I heard from Yoruichi that the last time you two met, you left of really bad terms. Though it did gave Kurosaki a motivational boost."

"That was the entire point of it, taichou." Naruto rolled his eyes. He was about to wave his captain off, before he paused halfway, hesitating slightly. "Though you can tell him that he did better then I'd expected him to." He said finally, grudgingly after a split moment of pause. "And also- I'll get out of his hair from today onwards. I won't be seeing him ever again- more like, I don't even want to anyway."

"I'll pass that on." Ukitake said with a nod, and turned to exit the highly sterilized room. He paused at the doorway. "Though I do wish you can be more open to people sometimes, Naruto. Not all attachments are painful."

"Taichou… since I'm going to be your vice-captain from this day henceforth, let me just tell you this once- my loyalties lie only to you, and to my friends." The almost blank stare that met Ukitake's eyes sent shivers down the other's spine. "That's already more than enough for me. I won't let anything else chain me down. Not even the old man. Not even Seireitei." Naruto paused. "Not even the Spirit King himself."

That bold declaration rendered the platinum haired captain speechless for a brief moment- before his mind finally grasped hold of what his subordinate had said- that he didn't consider himself as one of _them_. He played along with the idea, yes, but at the end of the day, Uzumaki Naruto did not view himself as a Shinigami.

"Naruto…"Ukitake spoke up finally, unsure of what exactly to say to the young blonde. For once, words did not come as easily to him as it usually did. "I had always wondered...what exactly made you so protective over your friends?" The answer that he received was downright elusive.

"I abandoned them." Naruto replied lowly, in a guilty whisper. His face was blank, but his eyes betrayed his sadness, and his shaking hands showed his frustration.

Ukitake left silently, leaving his newly appointed vice-captain to his own dismal thoughts.

* * *

October the tenth had never been a very good day for a certain vice captain. It was a day of destruction, of loss, of mourning, and of avengement. It was a day of immeasurable hatred. It was the day Uzumaki Naruto, the _demon fox _of Konoha, was born. Today, that unfavorable curse had followed him to the afterlife.

Seireitei had been placed in turmoil for the past two months or so. Aizen was brewing up a storm, and its effects were felt well enough in both the real world and Soul Society itself. It had all started with the appearance of two Arrancars. Naruto simply watched with an uninterested gaze as things went downhill that day.

Pretty soon, Toushiro, his vice-captain, Matsumoto, Renji, and the bald-bastard and his gay partner were dispatched to the real world to assist one Kurosaki Ichigo. Aizen was, however, undeterred, and simply shipped _more_ Arrancars over, for ready slaughter on both sides. Whilst Toushiro and his little gang had a blast exacting their petty revenge and pent up anger on Aizen's minions, Naruto was cooped back up in his office, sourly trying his upmost best to reduce the towers of paperwork on his desk- which had been doubled in size, considering his too-kind captain had offered to help with the tenth division's work as well.

He didn't even get complimentary ramen for slogging away for an entire week straight- before things had calmed down in Karakura.

Naruto learned that the higher the position he was in, the lesser the amount of time he would be able to see action. After all, being the vice-captain of the thirteenth division meant that he had to fill up both the captain's and lieutenant's places, seeing how their own captain was too sickly to hardly do any work. For a month or so, Naruto was somewhat relieved- entertained, even- as he watched his superiors trying to think up ways to squash and flatten down the rapidly growing threat that is Aizen.

Ukitake simply sighed whenever he viewed his lieutenant perched on the rooftops, with a smug _'I told you so'_ smile, blatantly eavesdropping in during captain's meeting. If Genryuusai-sensei noticed the blonde, he didn't comment whatsoever. Well, Ukitake did suppose that Naruto deserved every right to be updated- he was the main founder of the anti-Aizen theory after all.

Naruto's honeymoon month was ruined on that blasted day. He got up groggily to the sound of great mourning and wailing. Half stumbling around in only his sleep wear- a dull orange _jinbei_, he identified the damsel in distress as Rukia, who had discovered her somewhat best friend Orihime had been whisked away by Arrancars to Hueco Mundo.

Apparently, the stupid Shinigami Substitute got into a little spat with their Captain Commander, fuming and boiling over the denied petition which involved barging stupidly into Hueco Mundo for an impromptu Orihime rescue. Naruto simply listened to his subordinate's sob story quietly from the sidelines, idly noting as he did so, that Ichigo was going to carry out his charge nevertheless, through a certain Urahara Kisuke.

The afternoon wasn't any better. Rukia was still hung over the recent 'betrayal', and moping around in his office, pausing at times to heave a loud sigh, or to wipe off a few tears, sniffling as she did so, much to Naruto's great irritation. It was obvious that she was still very much affronted that she had been dragged back to Soul Society against her will.

"…If you're trying to make me feel guilty Rukia, it's not working really well. This isn't even any of my business anyway- I barely even talked to that girl." Naruto finally spoke up, irritancy laced in his voice. "So go sulk somewhere else and leave me in peace. You won't be able to achieve anything in here."

"Orihime was such a sweet, kind young lady." Rukia bemoaned melodramatically. "I can't bear to imagine what that two-faced traitor would be doing to her at this instant. Don't you feel the least bit shameful that she's in a predicament and you're not even the least bit bothered? After all, didn't you borrow her to carry out your great 'Soul Society Distraction Plan'? Doesn't this mean that you owe her a great favor, and now would be an opportune time to repay it back?"

Naruto smiled back humorlessly. "Nice try, but no cigar. Too bad for you, I can be a heartless uncaring bastard when I want to be."

"You don't even have to do much! Just open a _senkaimon_ for me to pass through!" Rukia exclaimed exasperatedly. "You'll even get brownie points for tagging along- Aizen killing!"

"I'm not stupid to take down Aizen in his own territory, _baka_." Naruto droned. "Much less without any backups from any of the taicho, and with that clueless log headed dunce Kurosaki to boot. In case you didn't quite notice, Rukia, that guy has a superhero complex that tends to put everyone in near-death situations. It's suicidal, and I still need my life, thank you very much."

"Ichigo is strong, and you don't have to fight _with_ him, just skirt around him."Rukia rolled her eyes. "Oh my poor poor friend. At the exceptionally slow rate Uzumaki-san's heart is thawing, I'll have to wait till the next decade to see you again! You'll be skin and bones by then, and who knows if you'll even be able to recognize me at all!"

"Enough with your theatrics. You don't have to wait for a decade- give me another year or so- I'll squash Aizen by then." Naruto snorted. "But don't fret about it too much. It isn't that bad actually. That girl was confirmed to be alive and breathing, so that means that Aizen has certain uses for her. And I'm quite sure that he has enough gentlemanly decency to provide for her her own private cell and food_." _Naruto tried to console the Kuchiki girl.

At those words however, Rukia cried harder, burying her face in her hands, and ran out wailing about callous commanders without a shred of shame or manly pride, to Naruto's bafflement. Naruto shrugged it off soon after, as Rukia's reiatsu diminished, as she headed- most probably the sixth division- to try her luck there.

Finally, as dusk befell, the foreboding tightness in his chest grew heavier, just as the shadows on the ground elongated, enveloping Soul Society in murky darkness. Naruto was feeling as restless as every other Shinigami, and he had currently taken to prowling the empty corridors of the thirteenth division's barracks, back rigid, Shinko by his side, and his eyes gleaming sharply under the moonlight. It didn't take him long to chance upon his intended target for the night.

"I guess there's no stopping you two, huh." Naruto spoke up bluntly from within the shadows, startling the two Shinigami. "I won't tell on you, but make sure to come back safely in one piece. I don't want an angry Byakuya after my head."

"Heh. I'd never thought that you'd willingly give up on the chance for a direct confrontation with Aizen, Uzumaki." Abarai Renji, lieutenant of the sixth division, greeted the blonde half-mockingly.

"I'll take him down when I see fit, and now's just not the right time. It'll be a waste of effort and it's too troublesome." Naruto replied coolly. "Your current aim for this trip is simply to get Orihime Inoue out of Aizen's clutches, nothing more, nothing less. Don't get all high and mighty and start taking on Aizen yourself. You should tell that to Strawberry Boy as well."

"You talk big for someone who's not even coming along." Renji sneered back. "You're not our captain, you can't boss me arou- OUCH!"

Renji yelled in brief pain as he got punched shut by Rukia. The Kuchiki girl turned to face Naruto, her face melting immediately from a scary glare to an apologetic frown. "We'll return safely, fukutaichou. I'll leave you to handle things here with nii-sama and Ukitake-taichou. "

Naruto wordlessly stepped up and held Rukia in a brief but strong hug, as Renji opened a _senkaimon_ with practiced ease. Rukia responded in kind, patting his back reassuringly. "I won't do anything foolish. I'll give you my word, fukutaichou." Rukia said, eyes gleaming hard with determination, as she turned to join an impatient Renji.

With curt nods of their heads, Naruto watched as the other two shinigami darted into the gate without any hesitation in their steps at all, completely resolute in chasing after Ichigo and his gang via Urahara.

"Good luck." Naruto muttered softly to the disappearing portal. "You're going to need it."

* * *

Ichigo's brow furrowed as his eyes adjusted to the suddenly bright light it was exposed to. His vision cleared quickly, to give way to a plain, rigid room that only consists of five doors- excluding the exit from which they came from. On thing was obvious- this was going to be a pain in the ass.

Ishida voiced his own thoughts aloud from beside him. "This is troublesome. I guess we'll have no choice but to start on one end and make your way through."

"Not quite." Rukia spoke up calmly. "The five of us will simply have to pick a path each. That's the most logical route we should be taking if we want to rescue Orihime as quickly as possible." She crossed her arms and locked eyes with him, as though daring him to oppose her idea.

Well, Ichigo found himself protesting swiftly enough. "Are you crazy? We're going up against the Espada here! The most obvious route would be to stick with each other! They wouldn't come at us one-for-one! If we all go alone, then-"

"Enough." Renji harshly cut through his sentence. It was obvious to the entire party what Ichigo had intended to voice out._ 'If we all go alone, some of us might not be able to survive through the very end.'_ Renji grasped Ichigo firmly by the front of his robes. "Ichigo, worrying about a warrior's life on the battlefield is only an insult."

Rukia chose to elaborate on her childhood friend's blunt statement. "No doubt that you're worried about me, to suggest that we should be moving together. That's not like you, Ichigo." She fixed her violet eyes onto his hesitating face. "Just as I've told you this before, you shouldn't be wasting your care on me." Her glare intensified as she hardened her voice. "I didn't come here to be protected by you."

Her bold statement resounded clearly through the enclosed room, the declaration and determination behind it was strong for everyone to hear. Ichigo however, still looked like he was struggling in an inner battle between his own strong set of morals, and her assertion for independence. His silent war was broken by the sound of clapping.

Tension high, all members of the group looked around to find the source- only to find nothing but the vast blankness of the surrounding walls. " The girl is correct. You won't achieve anything with that half-assed resolution of yours, Kurosaki Ichigo." A male voice echoed throughout the room, seemingly coming from everywhere and yet nowhere. His words stuck something familiar in Rukia and Ichigo himself. One mentioned to them by none other than a certain blonde lieutenant.

Ichigo gritted his teeth. "Fine resolution you have if all you can do is hide in the shadows. Why don't you show us your cowardly hide first, before judging if my worth is half-assed or not!"

His statement was met with a bout of amused chuckles. "Heated guy, aren't you? Well, why don't you all look up instead of turning your heads around like an idiot." The voice that rang through this time was definitely female. Her words were quick to make everyone's heads snap upwards towards the ceiling.

Perched at the center of the long ceiling were two arrancars, one male and the other female, feet glued to the ceiling like it was the most natural thing in the world to do so. They wore in the basic monochrome robes of Aizen's white army, except for one glaringly obvious difference that made them stand out from the other Arrancars Ichigo had faced before- their outfits were primarily dyed in inky jet black with white trimmings at the hems, the exact opposite of their usual counterparts. None of their numbers were exposed on the skin that their clothes did not cover, and both their hollow masks- though different from each others'- had hid the upper part of their faces from view.

"A pleasure to finally meet the human who has intrigued Aizen-sama during his long stay at Soul Society." The woman greeted, a mocking edge tinted within her tone. The Arrancars were there, but at the same time not. They did not give of any reiatsu, and their presences in the room were muted down to a level that could barely be distinguished as a human's.

Taking note of the tensed forms of the people below her, the female Arrancar held up her hands in an attempt to placate them. " Don't worry, we have no intention of getting into a fight with you. We do not have any orders from Aizen-sama to eliminate you… yet."

Those words brought no assurance to any of them- Ichigo didn't release his grip on Zangetsu's hilt. "Then why have you come to make contact with us?" Rukia asked, voice hard. "You are obviously on Aizen's side of the fence."

"No reason in particular." The male arrancar spoke up. His spiky hair was just as black as the robes he wore, a contrast to the sandy blonde of his companion. "We just wanted to gauge with our own eyes how much of an adversary you all are going to be to us. Nothing more, nothing less."

Ishida narrowed his glare on them. "By 'us', you mean-"

"_Dominación_." Nel interrupted from behind, swallowing thickly. "Why? Aizen-thathma thouldn't hath managed to complete you!"

"Luckily for him, Aizen-sama has managed to find himself a supply source in the living world." The male arrancar said flatly. "Unluckily for you, you'll have us Dominación to deal with. But as we stated earlier, we won't interfere with your business in Las Noches unless orders are received."

The female Arrancar cocked her head to the side. "On a side note, we've never met, but welcome back to Las Noches, Dondochakka, Pesche… and Nelliel." The corners of her lips pulled up into a tight grin. "Aizen-sama has been eagerly awaiting your return. And your courteous visit as well, Ichigo and friends."

"I'm sure we all feel extremely welcomed at the moment." Ichigo deadpanned. " So Aizen knows of our arrival. Big deal. Well, I have one message to give to him- tell him to wash his neck, and wait for my blade to cleave it into half."

"Tell that to him yourself- if you can even do so, that is. We are not going to make any contact with him unless necessary." The male Dominación said impassively, turning around in dismissal, his fellow Dominación doing the same. "We won't keep you from side tracking any longer. Aizen-sama is aware of your presence here. It would be best if you all get moving to quickly achieve your motives."

"You sound as though you dislike serving Aizen." Rukia remarked shrewdly. "In fact, you sound like you're interested in helping us defeat him."

Both of them paused rigidly in their steps, glancing at each other as though silently communicating if they should reply to Rukia's statement. Finally, the female slowly turned to face Rukia. "Saa, who knows?" She said mysteriously, her smile twisting into something akin of a grimace. " Either way, one thing is clear- you're too presumptuous to assume that we will help you in this foolish game of cat and mouse you're playing with Aizen-sama. Know your worth in this place, shinigami. Especially in this palace of eternal darkness that is Las Noches. You're only dancing like marionettes in the palm of his hands, inevitably playing to the tune of his music."

They made a move to leave once again, but Ichigo called out to them. "Wait! Isn't it unfair that you know almost all our names, and we don't get to know yours?"

"I see no need to give out my name to someone who is not going to be my opponent. For now, just the name Dominación would suffice for identification." The male Arrancar replied smoothly. "Sayonara. Let's hope that we shall never meet ever again."

There was no burst of reiatsu, no sound of wind gushing, nor of feet pattering. All it took was a blink of the eye- and the presences of the two had simply disappeared from the room in a flash. Yet, there was an eerie echo of the Arrancars' voices, faded but heard clearly by all of them.

"If we ever do meet again, it'll be on the battle field, when we'll have to cut you down without mercy."

* * *

The Espadas knew- their worth was being judged, and the values of their existences were now put on the line. Their lives were threatened, and by no one other than their very own creator, Aizen Sosuke. Hueco Mundo, and especially Las Noches, had always been the survival of the fittest. And the current Espadas were by far the elite of the elite. They had triumphed over the entire of their kind, be it simple hollows or arrancars like themselves.

But it wasn't enough. The new predators that Aizen had just brought into play were on a league different from theirs. It wasn't any wonder why the faces of everyone in the current meeting were grim, lips all tightly pulled into a tight line. Even the frown on the current Primera, Coyote Stark, was more sullen then it usually was, Grimmjow noted with dull interest.

As of now, Grimmjow had found himself transfixed at the hologram which was projecting that human brat- Kurosaki Ichigo was it's name- and a few of his other human buddies racing across the empty corridors of Hueco Mundo blindly. He frowned. All of this bravery and efforts for the sake of a mere mortal. Utter foolishness.

He was pulled from his morbid thoughts as the boss-man entered the room; his face camly composed just as it was of yesterday. Grimmjow wondered if that man's smug smile was a permanent feature that had been fixed onto his face.

" Oh? If I'd known otherwise, I'd thought that all of you seemed to be in low spirits today." Aizen remarked as he took is seat at the head of the table. "Do you all really feel that threatened with the invasion of a few foolish people? Some of them mere mortals, no less."

"Let's cut to the chase, Aizen." The Segunda, Baraggan rumbled. "Do you finally see the need for us to intercept them? They have already taken down most of the useless Privaron Espada. It would not be long before they breach this place- the Palace of the Espadas. "

That question, and the irritancy laced behind the following statements only caused Aizen's smirk to widen further. "You all know me so well. Well then, please do so. Ants should be taught to know their place. I am bored of watching them scuttling about blindly." Aizen turned to the Cuatro. "On a side note, Ulquiorra,bring that human girl to me later. There is something I wish to speak to her about."

The Espada in question dipped his head in affirmation. "Understood. I will see to it that she is prepared for the meeting."

"Very well." Aizen sighed, and made a dismissive wave with his hand, indicating them to leave. "Then this meeting is adjourned."

Silence descended, as the Espadas shifted restlessly in their seats, none of them making a move to even stand up. Grimmjow sighed mentally as he reclined in his seat, making himself comfortable in the heated debate that was soon to take place. Aizen sat in waiting, smiling as he watched his beloved creations struggling to find a way to oppose his decisions.

"I don't like this." Nnoitra hissed finally, taking the position of the one to spark the flame. "Aizen-sama, we have eyes. We know what's going on in that head of yours. So I don't get this. Why did you choose us for this task? Why don't you ask _them_?"

"Ah. _Them_." Aizen closed his eyes. "Let's just say for now that they are too… Unstable. Volatile. And much too unforgiving to be dispatched to deal with insignificant bugs. That's all there is to it. Is there anything you'd like to say, Nnoitra?" Aizen fixed the Quinto with an amused look. But the dangerous gleam behind it was anything like forgiving at the moment.

Aizen swept his hard gaze throughout the room. "Are you challenging my orders, my dearest Espadas? Are you so presumptuous to assume that you can read through my thoughts? Don't forget your loyalties lie- and what happens if you choose to break them."

The silence that befell his words was thick. Nnoitra immediately adverted his gaze, crossing his arms in defiance, but keeping his quiet all the same. They all knew- Aizen had lost his ever-so-fleeting interest in them. They weren't his tools, his army anymore. As it was of now, they were simply his play-tools. Toys to immerse his amusement in.

" Our loyalties lie with you alone, Aizen-sama." The Tres Espada, Harribel stated coolly, her calm voice cutting through the silence smoothly. "We will eliminate these hindrances immediately, as you have ordered."

" I'll be expecting the good news from you soon." Aizen replied, standing up and making his way to exit the room. He paused at the entrance of the doors, not even bothering to glance backwards at them as he spoke. " You all should be well aware of what happens should you fail in this menial task."

The doors swung shut after him with a snap, jolting all Espadas into action. Some, if not all of them, simply stood up and stalked out of the room, each immersed in their own heavy thoughts, and each determined to prove to Aizen their worth. Should they not, their very own lives would end by the blades of Aizen's new tools, the seven _Dominación__- _the unrestrained, the ones in power. Aizen had been mocking them when he had christened them thus- they were anything but berserk and in control when they where under his orders.

These new players served Grimmjow just fine. Life in Hueco Mundo was all about constant supremacy and selfishness. Adding new queens to the chessboards wouldn't make much of a difference. He'd just have to surpass them all.

And then usurp an idiot from his throne.

* * *

Seireitei's Sotaoichou, Yamamoto Genryuusai, found himself interrupted in his paperwork on the night of October tenth, by none other than the flustered lieutenant of the thirteenth division- Uzumaki Naruto. That was surprising in itself- the last time the boy had barged into his office in the middle of the night had been when he had discovered Kaien's death upon returning on his mission. That death of his older brother figure had triggered something within the boy, which had forced him to put on a more composed, mature appearance. To see him break his composure and get into his frenzied a state was something very rare indeed.

"Yama-jiji! Gyaaah, geroff me, you! Scram! I need to speak to the old man!" For him to revert back to his old nickname was saying something more about the other's distress. On a side note, the blonde had took to hollering for attention once again. "Yama-jiji! Hey, call these bozos off! I need to speak to you about something reeeaaally important here! Look, look, Ukitake-taichou's with me! I won't break anything, I promise! Yama-jijiiiii!"

He sighed to his guards what were struggling to contain the blonde from entering and disturbing him. "Let him in." He had long learned from experience that it was futile to ignore the boy. The headache that you'll get in return from ignoring him would be worse than the ones you'd get from entertaining him when he's in that mode. Either way, it was going to be a long night for the Sotaichou.

Said cause for the migraine rushed in, eyes wide in his excitement, and chattering non-stop. His former prized student, Ukitake Jyuushiro followed from behind, apologetic grin on his face at his subordinate's behavior. "Yama-jiji! Listen to this! You won't believe what that ugly fag Kurotsuchi managed to dig up-"

"Excuse me!" Screeched the newly labeled 'ugly fag', as the captain swaggered his way into the office without much resistance whatsoever. Upon closer scrutiny, Yamamoto realized that his security was knocked unconscious on the floor. Suspicious and not-very-hidden syringes were sticking out on various parts of their bodies. He started massaging his temples. Kurotsuchi continued, very much oblivious to the Sotaichou's dilemma. "Is that what thanks I get when I helped you with all your stalking?"

Naruto rolled his eyes at the others' melodrama, but chose to focus on the Captain commander instead. "Ignore that barmy person beside me. Anyway, I need permission to enter Soul Society and defeat one Aizen Sosuke, as well as retrieving two shinigami, one shinigami substitute, and a handful of mortals." The Uzumaki said seriously, eyes hard. "I need clearance as soon as possible. I need to leave for Hueco Mundo immediately."

"Denied." Yamamoto said without any need for consideration. Seeing as the other was about to protest, he continued on. "For a couple of reasons. Those groups of misfits know exactly what they are getting into when they stepped foot into the Dangai. I am prepared to never see them again. You on the other hand, are not allowed to be missed, since right now you're one of our trump cards against our fight with Aizen. Aizen might launch an attack on the human world at any moment, and without you at our core to fight-"

"I know!" Naruto shouted, cutting him off. "I know all of that! But first, you gotta know- Aizen has been playing around with something dangerous! And I need to go over there and stop him before it gets any worse- for both himself and us! Each and every second we spend ignoring him, waiting for him to make the first move, would be a crucial mistake for everyone!"

"Why don't I show you what Uzumaki has meant." Kurotsuchi smiled widely, teeth flashing. He snapped his fingers. " Bring in the monitors." Yamamoto had to applaud himself from not collapsing in shock as his left wall promptly exploded. Wheeled in through the crumbles was a large screened, ceiling tall and bed sized wide television. Plugging it into a nearby electrical source had caused the blackout of the residential estate of the first division. Distant screams and curses could be heard as the lights went out, and heaters died off to give way to a stream of icy cold water.

'_Kurotsuchi Mayuri… You will die a very horrible death.' _The Sotaicho swore in his head as he regarded the happenings on the screen. It was a live feed of someone running through a spacious, grey-coloured corridor. Almost as if…

"Naruto, are you _stalking_ someone?" Ukitake voice his thoughts aloud as he regarded the screen. Apparently, the white haired captain wasn't in on the news as well. "Specifically, are you stalking Kuchiki Rukia?"

"No! Kami, why does everyone think so?" Naruto growled in frustration. "Okay, so maybe I bugged her when she left for Hueco Mundo earlier today. Who cares? It's for mental safety and reassurance purposes! Everyone bugs each other! I'd bet Byakuya places bugs on her daily!"

Similar thoughts seemed to be running through the heads of all three captains, but none of them dared voice their opinions. Naruto fiddled with the remote control, switching the mode into playback and skimming through the video to find the clip that he wanted. "Anyway, what Kurotsuchi and I had discovered when we looked through the happenings were these- Dominación. Aizen's new army."

Kurotsuchi then decided to take the lead in the explanations. The screen had now been paused at a clip of two arrancars, clad in black, and perched on the ceilings. "There are in all sense, Arrancars in any shape and form. However, their souls have been forcibly halted from entering Soul Society. Aizen has personally hand picked a number or mortals, snatched their souls upon their immediate death, and by tweaking their memories to constantly expose the more horrible ones, changed them into hollows."

"And let me guess." Ukitake cut in. "He bred them into Vasto Lorde and turned the successful ones into Arrancars upon their instant evolution. There are in all sense, thoroughly bred, pedigree Arrancars, loyal only to the ones who'd fed them, and raised them from day one- Aizen."

"Correct." Kurotsuchi smiled. "My, you catch on to things quickly, Ukitake taichou. Sadly, the same thing cannot be said for your lieutenant. He only had enough brain cells left to perform a goldfish imitation when I had finished my first explanation." It looked like the hatred between the two was mutual. "The Dominación had been a new addition to Aizen's army. They had only been allowed into his Arrancar ranks a month ago. Not to mention that he still has his collection of Espadas, as well as their own Fracción. The war to be fought will be a tough one indeed."

"But one thing I don't get, is _why_. Why did Aizen choose to wait, to patiently cultivate them into perfect arrancars _now_? He could have done this experiment ages back." Ukitake pondered. "Find a potential human soul, convert it, and the Dominación could have been his leading force of today."

"Because he didn't manage to find it." Surprisingly, it was Naruto who had chosen to spoke up. " He didn't manage to find a source of humans that all have a large cradle of reiatsu within them. When given to a hollow of Vasto Lorde quality, the results will be terrifying."

Silence descended as everyone in the room digested the horrifying information Naruto had provided. Naruto continued evenly in a quiet voice. " The Dominación was created for the sole purpose of defeating me alone. He knows that if I'd had to fight him one-on-one, I'd win if I could pull it into a battle of endurance. Perhaps a single Dominación may not be able to tire me out completely, but if he sends a group of them at a single time…"

Naruto didn't need to finish his sentence. The captains all knew too well what would happen. None of them would survive them if Naruto himself couldn't. "How did he even manage to find a source of humans with high reiatsu power? Did he choose to harvest the souls of dead priests or something? " Ukitate asked aloud.

"Pfft, as if." Naruto snorted. "He wouldn't have much bad trigger memories on priests to turn them into hollows. Besides, priests make bad combatants. Anyway, I'll have to go to Las Noches to deal with this problem immediately. I can use Ichigo's groups' confusion to take out one or two of them-"

"-Again." Ukitake muttered, shaking his head in amusement. "When will you learn that nothing good is ever going to come out of using Kurosaki-kun as a distraction, Naruto?"

"Hey, the story about the boy who called wolf, remember? Aizen won't think that I'll be stupid enough to risk the same trick twice." Naruto huffed in annoyance. He turned to the Sotaichou with pleading eyes. "So how about it, old man? I'll just sneak in there, reduce the numbers, and then come back with the brats! Quick, painless, and efficient!"

"…You have twenty four hours." Yamamoto finally agreed. "Twenty four hours to hunt those Dominación down, and return regardless of your success. The safety of the other brats' will take second priority. They have the numbers to look after themselves. Am I understood, Uzumaki Naruto?"

Naruto saluted and grinned, surprisingly not one of excitement, but one of guilt and resolution. "Crystal."

Ukitake spoke up suddenly as the teen made to leave. "Naruto… you have an ulterior motive for going, don't you? Regarding those Dominación in particular?"

Naruto didn't turn back to face him, but he did stop in his tracks to mull over on how he was going to answer his captain's question.

"Ah." He finally agreed after a moment's silence. "Because at long last… I've finally found them."

* * *

I deeply apologize for my ultra long hiatus.

I've finally managed to force myself out of demotivation, hibernation, procrastination, and a lot of other sh*t, and got my lazy ass working and typing. Still, the length of time taken for my chapters to come out will continue to be sporadic from now. Hopefully it'll be shorter than the timeframe for this one. (TωT) *sobs*

The fight with Aizen was rather anti-climatic if I had to say so myself. Like '_No, Naruto, why did you turn into an idiot the moment you unleashed your super cool powers? Isn't that like, supposed to make you cooler? *wails in denial*_' Sorry guys, Naruto _is_ stupid in canon, I just liked him smarter in my story. :P … Just kidding. Give a guy a break. Naruto was on the verge of death, in super hellalot of pain, and had a kyuubi raging in his mind. If I didn't love him that much, I'd just kept to the normal canon storyline. And I was thinking that I should make Yamamoto into more of an asshole, since he is one, that killjoy party-pooper, but I'll let it slide this time.

But on a happy note, yup, that's the Soul Society Invasion arc done and down with, and the Hueco Mundo Invasion arc coming up next! I plan of having major canon deviation from this point onwards, since my story is pretty much screwed from the current manga's already.

Feel free to message me if you've spotted any mistakes, or have any questions or suggestions about this chapter. I'll answer them if they don't risk plot spoilers.

Hoped you've enjoyed the chapter.

Until next time,

TenkuuBatsu.


	8. A Madman's Prayer

**Chapter 8- A Madman's Prayer**

* * *

Naruto's heart was thumping loudly within his ribcage, and adrenaline pumping madly though his veins, as he made his way through the _dangai_ at rapid speed. He still had about a minute more of running to reach the empty abyss that was Hueco Mundo. And he still had to travel a distance before he would be able to rejoin Kurosaki Ichigo and his rescue gang.

But that wasn't the reason why Naruto was feeling his jittery at the moment. Sure, the Arrancars Aizen had in his arsenal may be strong, but if Ichigo's group of mortals could withstand resisting against the entire cohort of not-so-sane Shinigami captains, Naruto didn't see any reason why they couldn't stand up against a few more crazed hollows.

No. The reason for his tension was because of Aizen's new pets- the Dominación. Naruto was willing to bet that Aizen have at least five of them in stock, and each and every one of them had been hypnotized to display complete loyalty to the man. It didn't help that they were ridiculously strong and smart as well.

Naruto gritted his teeth as he picked up speed. Truth to be told, his impatience flared and his fury spiked with the thought of ending Aizen's life in this trip once and for all, this time fairness be damned. It was an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. If Aizen chose to play dirty, Naruto would do the same.

But as it was for now, the odds were not towards Naruto's side. Despite what the mad scientist Mayuri said about inborn loyalty, Naruto knew- that cunning bastard definitely had some sort of leverage against the Dominación. Their dislike for the man was obvious enough- they knew that they were being used. And it pained Naruto to see that there was nothing anyone could do to stop it, not even himself.

* * *

Yatsutora Sado was fighting the toughest battle he has ever fought before. He had only discovered two things thus far- the first was that Las Noches had been usurped by beings of greater power- the Dominación was it? - and the second was that because of the sudden transfer of powers, the current Espadas were getting tippy and itchy to prove to Aizen their worth. That much was clear when the Quinto Espada, Nnoitora Gilga slaughtered his fellow brethren when his impatience got the better of him five minutes into the fight.

The 107th Arrancar, Gantenbainne Mosqueda had put up a good fight. But it was clear that in terms of sheer power and maneuverability, Chad held the advantage. The odds of the former winning to the latter were slim to none, and though they both knew of this fact, they still gave it their best nevertheless. Chad could respect that brave aspect of his opponent, and thus wanted to finish off their battle with the honor it deserved.

That particular thought had been squashed flat as the spectating Nnoitora decided that he had enough of waiting and cleaved the bulkily built Privaron neatly into two.

Currently, Chad was fighting for his life against the tall and gangly Espada, who did not have the slightest intention of holding back at all. The other wasn't like any opponent Chad has ever met before- he wasn't relishing in the battle, yet he was fully focused and resolute in it. Nnoitora's brows were furrowed in concentration, and his eyes held a crazed gleam in them, almost as though-

"Who's forcing you to fight?" Chad asked, as they broke away from each other after a series of fast paced strikes.

"None of yer business." The quinto hissed. "Don't talk to me like you care, human filth."

"It's Aizen." He guessed. Seeing the other gritting his teeth in frustration and anger, he concluded that his guess was correct. Chad decided that he could risk another attempt at fishing for information. "And the reason you're panicking now is because of them- those Dominación."

"Don't say that name in front of my face!" Nnoitora screamed shrilly. He brought his blade down, slashing against the air in an unexpected outburst of irritancy. He too was panting heavily, his one uncovered eye gleaming eerily in the darkness of the room, a tinge of craziness held within their core. Repositioning his overly large scythe in a position that was easy to cleave a rampaging bull into two, Nnoitora charged at Chad with a salvage war cry.

Chad sidestepped just in time for the other's blade to sink into the opposing wall, blowing it up into small pieces of rubble, allowing for a stream of sunlight to filter through. The situation had to be worse that he'd thought it would be, since it had driven even the Quinto espada into such frenzy to prove their worth to their creator. "These Dominación… just how strong are they?" He voiced his question out loud.

"They are worth _nothing_." Nnoitora sneered back in reply. "I don't see what Aizen-sama sees in 'em, but they aren't worthy of his attention, much less praise. You however, ain't even worthy of _mine_." Without missing a beat, the Quinto slashed haphazardly at Chad, and followed through with a quick release of a cero from his tongue.

There was no way the human would have managed to cleanly dodge both swiftly executed attacks. Chad was blown through the walls of Tres Cifras and sent tumbling into the white sands surrounding Las Noches. Coughing up blood and dirt, Chad painfully picked himself off the rough ground, ignoring the spasms of protests from his muscles. He propped himself unsteadily on one knee, channeling reiatsu into his left arm- his _Brazo Izquierda del Diablo_- for another _La Muerte_ on the quinto espada. He didn't even get a chance to release it as a large crescent blade was already hovering against his neck before he could blink.

Looking up, all Chad could see was the wide ear-splitting grin of Nnoitora Gilga, his absurdly long tongue already out and in the process of firing another of his unique golden-yellow cero. "It's too late for regrets now, brat. Serves you right to try and take on more than what you're worth." Nnoitora sneered, barring his teeth at the other. "Trash like you should know your place and keep to it quietly. Maybe you would've lasted longer that way."

It was over before he knew it. Chad was outclassed in this battle in every possible aspect- speed, strength, and raw power. Any attempt to dodge and evade on his part would be futile; he didn't have the speed or flexibility to do so. Thus he did the only thing he could do at this circumstance- he cringed and braced himself for the impact, for the sheer pain that was about to hit him, but it never did.

Opening his eyes just in time, Chad saw an ink-jet black cero flew in between the Quinto and himself- forcing the former to backpedal a few steps behind, lose his balance, and misfire his own cero. The golden cero crashed into one of the cylindrical pillars nearby, causing it to topple and smash heavily to the ground, throwing up clouds of dust and debris as it did so.

Eyes narrowing, Nnoitora searched around for the source of the disturbance, sensing for any spiritual presences nearby. There weren't any, but Nnoitoria's gaze immediately locked on the lithe form that stood unmoving on top one of the taller pillars. The billowing black robes of the other gave easy identification for Nnoitora. His eyes widened in shock. "You-!"

"Nnoitora Gilga." The silhouetted figure stated impassively. "Your time of repentance has ran out. Now, you only have _punishment_ left to face."

* * *

Back on the outskirts of Las Noches, the Noveno Espada, Aaroniero Arruruerie, was screaming shrilly in pain and sheer agony. Rukia, collapsed on the ground beside it, barely registered what the other was saying. She dimly noted that it was something along the lines of 'Aizen-sama, help me!'. Grunting with conscious effort, she directed her Zanpakuto, Sode no Shiraiyuki to freeze up the open wounds on her body, numbing them and stopping the profuse bleeding, as she gingerly picked herself off the cold hard floor.

"Tch. How pathetic. To think that I wind up in this state only after facing the 9th Espada." Rukia scoffed, scorning herself as she leaned heavily onto the nearest wall to support herself upright. Every part of her body was aching like mad, but she didn't- _couldn't_- allow herself to slip into unconsciousness now. Orihime was still imprisoned in some godforsaken room in this gigantic palace, and until the other was in safe hands, Rukia had to push herself to keep going until her mission was completed.

Determined, she slowly started to take small steps towards the exit, where sunlight was ruthlessly streaming in, beckoning her to come, before she paused in her movements with an unsteady jerk, as her ears caught the sound of movement coming from behind her. _'Impossible. I didn't sense any presence at all-' _

"You!" One of Aaroniero's heads screamed in relief as they recognized the newcomer, interrupting his thoughts. "Aizen-sama must have sent you over! Kill that brat and save us- hurry- stop the pain-" Its rapid high-pitched rant was cut off as their perceived rescuer stabbed it straight in the center with his blade, silencing all noise in the dark empty chambers immediately.

"W-Why?" The other head choked out, gasping its dying breaths now that its other life partner has died. "Aren't you on our side? The Arrancar's?"

" I only take orders from Aizen-sama alone. And his orders this time are indisputable." The newcomer replied smoothly. "Aaroniero Arruruerie, your time of repentance has ran out. And your punishment is henceforth absolute- _death_."

* * *

Abarai Renji and Uryuu Ishida wasn't pleased with the other. That statement itself held a bit of inaccuracy- 'pleased' was just describing the situation mildly. Ishida was beyond outraged that he was forced to pair up with a thick baboon-skulled lieutenant who couldn't execute a proper hadou to save his sorry behind. Renji was just as indignant at the pencil shaped quincy who started bossing him around ever since the battle started like he had a giant tree branch shoved up his ass.

The two nuisances by the names of Pesche Guatiche and Dondochakka Birstanne didn't make the situation any brighter than it already was- or wasn't- either.

Just when things were finally picking up to the Shinigami's favor, thanks to the weird 'Sprenger' thing which the quincy had successfully managed to execute out; Renji hadn't bothered properly listening to the other's self-appraising explanation, it was just a one-time thing anyway. Their happiness was short-lived as the monster of an Espada devoured his subordinate whole, allowing for the former's complete recovery.

Renji and Ishida was just about to leave this entire fiasco behind but the Octava Espada was hard pressed for revenge- or in this case, test subjects. It was thus the two of them found themselves at the receiving end of the pink-haired Arrancar's Resurrección, Fornicarás. It wasn't a very thrilling nor beautiful sight for either of them to behold, and they weren't exactly emerging victorious out of it either.

Currently, the both of them found themselves fruitlessly dodging attacks from their clones, made from Szayel's Resurrección. It didn't matter how many they had managed to defeat- if they took down one, the Espada would simply call on five more to take its place. They were both tiring out- and fast.

Renji seethed as the pink haired scientist started cackling madly at their expense, watching languidly with amusement as all four of them went head on with their duplicates. If that's how that damned scientist wants to play this game, Renji would gladly give it to him. He raised his sword, dully noting that the rest of his clones did so as well.

"Hey, wait, Abarai-kun- do you know what you're doing-"

Ignoring Ishida's stuttered protests, Renji released his pent-up anger, channeling it into reiatsu and passing it through his blade. "Bankai! Hihiō Zabimaru!" Half-a-dozen similar explosions to his own lighted up around the building, blasting the dome-like ceiling apart and sending rocks and chunks of concrete flying outwards into the sky. Exploding out of the pile of rubble soon after was an easy feat with the large form of his unsealed Zanpakuto.

"Urrgh." Renji turned around to face the sound of the noise- which was Ishida's grunting as he tried to shove away rocks which were centimeters away from burying the stick-thin teenager alive.

"Yo! I'm still alive!" Renji greeted all-too-cheerfully, glancing down with glee to see the quincy's usual primly laundered robes turned battered and black with grime. "So then, how is my intellect?" He questioned, a little proud at finding a 'loophole' in dealing with those troublesome clones.

"I fail to see any!" Ishida snapped angrily back, his glasses shining reflectively under the exposed sunlight as he dusted himself off. "No matter what you say, you're just as moronic as Ichigo-"

"Che." Renji scowled, turning away in mock-disgust. "Now that you've mentioned Ichigo's name, I can't take anything that you've mentioned about me as praise-"

"That's because I was putting you down in the first place!" Ishida exploded with rage at the lack of the other's brains.

Renji sobered up quickly as he analyzed the situation. "Anyway, those two idiots Pesche and Dondochakka should be alright, they are fairly strong after all. The only problem we have on hand now is Szayel; it seems like he's finally gotten serious… and he's approaching us fast."

Ishida didn't have time to reply, as he and Renji backpedalled a few meters behind as the current topic of their conversation, the Octava Espada made his dramatic emergence from the ruins in the form of a gigantic ball. "It looks like you've damaged Las Noches; and quite badly too, if I must say so myself." Szayel commented carelessly as he unfurled his wings that had been protectively covering him from falling rubble a few moments ago. He glanced at the fallen ruins surrounding his person. "The person who has to report this to Aizen-sama isn't going to be too happy about it." He remarked dryly. _'Hopefully, that wouldn't have to be me.'_

Sighing, he dismissed the remaining clones that had somehow managed to survive the explosion. Noting the shocked faces of his two opponents, Szayel started to explain. "The fight until now was just plain boring. Like hell I'd let it continue as it is." Leaning forward excitedly as though he was about to reveal a large secret, Szayel grinned madly. "Why don't I show it to you myself- the true power of Fornicarás."

"You could- if you had a little more time, that is." A bored voice drawled out suddenly, shocking everyone in the clearing, including Szayel himself. Two black clad figures made themselves visible in the sky, perched slightly behind the Octava Espada. Szayel stepped backwards cautiously. He didn't even sense their presence one bit, nor did he hear of their arrival until they'd made themselves known. Just how long have they been standing there?

Uncaring to Szayel's confused and utterly bewildered expression, the first figure continued his sentence in the same, bored monotonous voice. "Unfortunately, time is something which you no longer have the luxury of possessing."

"Szayel Aporro Granz." The other figure stated in a clear voice. "Your time of repentance is up. As per Aizen-sama's orders, we are to eliminate you immediately."

* * *

Shinigami Substitute, Kurosaki Ichigo panted heavily as he slowly lowered Grimmjow's defeated form onto the ground, considering carefully if he should allow Inoue to heal his opponent's grievous wounds. He had absolutely no reason to- the other had shown no remorse when they had faced each other in battle, and he had hurt Ichigo's comrades one time too many. But yet, Ichigo felt a twinge of guilt at leaving his opponent on the ground to bleed himself to death.

It turns out that Ichigo didn't have to make the decision himself. Swirling around, he blocked the sharp-clawed fingernails that were centimeters away from striking at his body with Zangetsu's black blade. Despite the fact that he was using his bare hands to block a full-fledged Zanpakuto's counter, the Sexta Espada, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez didn't even flinch at all. He knew that his Hierro was thick enough to protect himself from drawing blood, so he concentrated solely on his opponent before him.

Grimmjow glared with all his might at those eyes that were glaring back at him. Those eyes that were full of pity and egotistical pride. Those eyes that told him to give up just because he wasn't up to standard. He didn't bother that his Resurrección had given up on him. It didn't matter that his entire torso was covered in third degree burns from the blasted Shinigami's reiatsu explosions. And the fact that he was barely able to stand and dangerously teetering on the brink of unconsciousness wouldn't make a difference on how much he loathed the individual who was standing before him.

"Grimmjow…" Ichigo said, a tinge of something- mockery? Pity?- held in his voice once he realized that the Espada no longer had the means to carry on the battle. Whatever it was, it irked the blue-haired Espada to no end. How dare that idiot take pity on _him_, the undefeated, the one that was supposed to emerge victorious in this fight?!

"Like I'd lose-" Grimmjow hissed in anger, chest heaving with each strained breath he took. "There's no way- There's no way I'd lose to someone like you!" Roaring in dissatisfaction, Grimmjow charged forward at Ichigo, intent on tearing the other limb from limb.

Ichigo had taken up a defensive stance, bracing himself for the impact. Grimmjow scoffed. It was going to be the teen's own fault that he hadn't bothered to take this attack seriously. Grimmjow was going to pummel the other into bits, and then he'd carry out the same thing with the other's girlfriend behind, regardless of whatever Aizen-sama said.

Before he'd even got close to the human Shinigami however, Grimmjow halted in his tracks, spurting out blood as he did so, as a beam of jet black cero pierced through his right thigh, rendering him immobile. He collapsed to the ground, screaming curses in agony at his recently acquired wound.

Ichigo himself was just as shocked at the sudden hostile attack from a third-party, as he skimmed through the area around him, looking for the source that the cero had emerged from. He didn't have to look around for too long. Before he registered what was happening, a black clad figure had reappeared in front of the Sexta's collapsed form, a sword drawn out in his hands, ready to deliver the final strike onto his opponent.

"Wait! What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Ichigo demanded harshly, eyes wide at the sudden turn of events. His timing could not be any better- any second later and the other's blade would have cleanly and completely pierced through Grimmjow's exposed throat. As it is, the sword was laid still, just millimeters away from breaking skin.

The black figure looked up towards Ichigo. He couldn't properly grasp the other's expression due to the hollow mask that had covered the upper part of his face from view, but his reading made him extremely confused on what the other was feeling. Though the newcomer's posture displayed nonchalance, the tightened jaw gave Ichigo the feeling that the other didn't like what he was doing just as much as Ichigo himself did.

"Nothing much. I'm just finishing up what you failed to do, Kurosaki Ichigo." The figure in black clothes replied in a scathing tone. "Don't take it personally. I'm just following Aizen-sama's orders."

"Y-You lie."

The newcomer broke his attention off Ichigo to peer curiously at the broken form at his feet. The corner of his lips twisted upwards in a fanged grin. "Oh? And what makes you say that, Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez?"

Grimmjow glared back at the black figure that stood towering menacingly over himself. "Aizen-sama would never have us Espada killed by reckless monsters like you-"

"Aizen-sama has been growing displeased at your performance as of late." The other cut in smoothly, sneering in contempt. "It didn't surprise me one bit when the orders came in."

"It doesn't matter if Aizen ordered you or not. Remove yourself from Grimmjow this instant, _Dominación_." Ichigo butted into the conversation fiercely. He received two glares in return for his interference, but he simply glared back in return.

"Like I said earlier, I don't need your self-loathing pity, Ichigo!" Grimmjow spat furiously onto the ground, unmindful of the situation he was currently in. The sword that was held onto his throat didn't waver with his intense actions at all.

"I don't care how you manage to hear that name from, but don't butt into our affairs like you own this place, _Shinigami_." The Dominación bristled in anger. "Besides, you should be thanking me for cleaning up the mess you made after your sorry fight with this loser here."

Ignoring the indignant protests from Grimmjow, Ichigo continued reasoning with the Dominación before him. He was betting on the fact that negotiations might be possible, since this one seemed more humane- or at least, prone to anger- than the other two he'd met earlier before. "Grimmjow is already unable to continue battle. It wouldn't serve any of us any good to carry on what we're doing."

"Naïve." The Dominación stated. He then broke into a grin, as though realizing that Ichigo was trying to bargain with him for the Espada's life. "What you are doing and what I am doing are two completely different matters altogether. You are simply eliminating any obstacles that stand in your way. Your objective has been accomplished the moment Grimmjow is unable to continue battle. On the other hand, my objective is to fulfill Aizen-sama's orders to the best of my ability. And this time, his orders are absolute."

Pausing, he raised his voice and declared in an authoritative tone. "Grimmjow Jaegerjaquez, your time of repentance is up. As per Aizen-sama's orders, you will be obviated immediately." Steadying his sword, he lifted it up, and lowered it swiftly with every intention of cleaving the Sexta's throat into two. He paused a second time as his footing shook with the intense reiatsu that was suddenly exploding through the ground, creating small tremors from beneath. Looking up, the Dominación bit back a sigh as he realized who had caused it.

"Not if I can help it." Ichigo gritted out, not willing to watch his opponent die from a pathetic cause such as assassination. He swung his sword outwards, challenging the Dominación to take him on.

"Kurosaki Ichigo. You have interfered one time too many in Aizen-sama's plans. Give it up or I will have to force you to." His new opponent warned plainly, realizing the challenge for what it was worth. The other must knew that Ichigo wouldn't make his job to be as easy as it seemed it would as long as he was around. The fastest and most efficient way was to simply get Ichigo himself out of the equation. And Ichigo wasn't planning on letting the other have his way so easily.

"Bring it." Ichigo stated with as much bravado as he could muster. "I always make it a personal chore to not let Aizen get what he wants. Although I'm not sure about what he's thinking this time around by letting his Arrancars fight by themselves, but whatever."

"Ichigo, you fool!" Grimmjow shouted in anger at the other's stupidity. "That's not someone you can take on so easily-"

"Espadas, Dominacións, pah. It doesn't matter what you call yourselves. Ultimately, you're just Arrancars made from Aizen's stupid little Hougyouku." Ichigo scoffed as he verbally baited the Dominación into attacking him first. "If I'm gonna defeat Aizen and his mad schemes, I don't see any harm in finishing one or two of his lackeys as it is now." It seemed as though his subtle threats worked. The reiatsu from the other spiked to an insanely high amount, almost rivaling his own.

"You talk big, human." The Dominación growled lowly, carelessly abandoning his katana to the ground to pick up a pair of the more favored _Tekko-kagi_ from his back. He swiped the longer than usual hand claws through the air experimentally. "I'm going to show you just how wrong you are to mess with us."

"Like I said earlier-" Ichigo grinned. "_Bring it_."

The two combatants charged at each other, weapons meeting in a clang of steel. The explosion that had erupted on impact blew everyone within its range outwards with a strong gust of hot air, clouding their vision as it did so.

* * *

Nnoitora was panting heavily, running for his life as he screamed curse after curse at the Dominación that was hot on his trail. Chad's eyes widened in disbelief as he watched as the latter coolly and systematically drove the Quinto Espada into a corner. 'Cool' was not the correct word to describe the expression on the black clothed Arrancar's face, Chad reassessed. If he had to pick a word for it, it would be 'bored'.

"I'll get you back for this betrayal, _Ira_!" Nnoitora spat harshly, chest heaving as he fruitlessly battled away the creatures that were lunging at him without fail. "Don't think that you'll get off this easily. Aizen-sama will avenge my death-" He stopped his sentence midway to let loose a gurgled cry as a canine-looking creature bit down on his thigh.

The barest of smiles twitched upon Ira's face. "How will your death be avenged when it was Aizen-sama himself who called for it?" He stated cynically. "It is a fact that you are no longer useful to Aizen-sama, as is it a fact that you will not live to see tomorrow when it comes."

Chad felt sick in the stomach just by simply watching the bloody scene of butchery unfolding before his very own eyes. That Dominación- Ira- barely twitched an eyelid as he waved a careless hand forward, bringing forth more animalistic creatures from the sand, and directing them to shred and slaughter his fellow arrancar.

Nnoitora's screams of agony pierced through the air, stinging his ears like toxic. "Stop it." He whispered as he took a step forward, trying to get the ringing of those agonized screams out from his head. Before he could take one more step further, he was halted by the abrupt rise of two large and bulky humanoid sand creatures, crackling their knuckles forebodingly as they blocked him from his path forward.

The screams were excruciating. "Stop it!"

"Patience, Yasutora Sado." The scratchy voice of the Dominación spoke out, the other not even turning his head in acknowledgement. "After I am done disposing of my… 'brethren', I will do the same to you as well. It would not take long before that idiot succumb to the pain and die."

"Stop that." Chad found himself saying. "Orders or not, you shouldn't torture him so."

"Oh?" That defiance seemed to have piqued the other's interest. "But that method of death befits such a monster like him greatly." The voice was taunting, mocking the other for not putting up that big a fight.

Chad wasn't expecting such a childish comeback from the Arrancar before him. "Then you're no better a monster than he is." He snapped out in anger.

"Am I?" Chad snapped his mouth shut as teal eyes finally locked onto his own, gleaming eerily through the openings of his hollow mask. Unlike those of the tenth division's, the pair that scrutinized his face was blank, devoid of any emotions. "Nnoitora has slaughtered more than 5,100 humans just because he was bored. He ate over 20,800 hollows in their places simply because they stood in his way."

Ira slowly made his way over to Chad, stopping just before the two sand golems that towered protectively over the Dominación's lean frame. "Apart from that, he is charged with 734 cases of disobedience and 399 cases of unwarranted assault. Do you still think that the punishment I am delivering to him is unjust, human?"

"E-Even so." Chad nodded, despite stumbling over his words due to the intensity of the gaze that was trained on him. "He doesn't deserve that pain. No one deserves that much amount pain."

"Very well. I shall indulge your foolish whims just this once, human." To Chad's shock, the Dominación snapped his fingers, and a vortex of sand shot up into the fake skies with an almighty roar, twisting itself to form that of a dragon, complete with cruelly sharp talons and a wide jaw brimming with razor teeth. It descended on to the bloodied form of the Quinto in one swoop, disintegrating into a shapeless heap of sand the moment the other clearly breathed his last.

"Now then." Ira turned his full attention to the wide-eyed Mexican that kneeled on one knee a few meters away from himself. "With the disturbance removed, I shall fufill Aizen-sama's second command."

Chad felt his stomach sinking. He already knew what was about to come next. Despite the other's surprising display of mercy, he was also an Arrancar that adhered to Aizen's biddings.

Teal eyes narrowed ruthlessly down at the helpless creature before him. "Furia, Rabia. Leave not a single bone untouched after you're done with him."

_Fury and Rage._ It was befitting of someone who was the embodiment of a madman's Wrath, thought Chad as he equipped his fullbring, dodging just in time to avoid the heavy smash at the spot he was at a few milliseconds ago by the two bulky golems.

Those emotionless teal eyes and the screams of now dead Quinto were still freshly burned in his memory.

* * *

Rukia glared at the spot in the mask where the other's eyes were supposed to be. However, eye contact was not possible with how shaded the room was, and how thick the hollow mask that lined the other's face was. Still, this did not stop her from scrutinizing the other further. "You're that arrancar that gave me that warning before." She noted with a start. "Those Dominación."

"You are quite observant." Came the scathing remark. The black clad Dominación snapped his fingers, and light- artificial as it was- immediately flooded the room, exposing details that were not as obvious before to Rukia's eyes. The Dominación clucked his tongue in disapproval. "It seems as though I might not have much left to do. You're barely a threat to Aizen-sama's existence as it is."

Rukia gave a wry smirk, accepting the fact that she must be looking worse for wear after her fight with the Noveno Espada. "I can't say the same for you." The other's black hair that matched his robes were neatly framing his masked face, and each and every fold in his robes was neatly pressed down and held in place with a white obi. The very dignified yet haughty presence he gave off reminded her of her nii-sama, Byakuya,.

"You already know what's going to happen next. I won't waste time on explanations then." The Dominación swung out his zanpakuto, whose double-edged blade was a shade of jet-black similar to Ichigo's Tensa Zangetsu. He took one step forward. Then another. And in a blink of the eye, disappeared from Rukia's sight.

Eyes widening in disbelief at the sheer speed of the other, Rukia swirled around to lock gaze with a pair of black obsidian eyes that stared down at her ruthlessly. "Farewell, Kuchiki Rukia. Your death will be mourned."

Saying so, he immediately plunged his sword through her upper torso, where blood immediately gushed out from the newly created hole. Surprisingly, Rukia didn't feel any pain. She collapsed on to the floor heavily with a thud, splotches of black immediately clouding her already wavering vision.

It was over. She could literally feel the life being drained out of her body. _I'm sorry, Orihime… I'm sorry, Ichigo… _She closed her eyes, waiting for the final blow to descend upon her. To her surprise, it didn't come. Cracking one eye open, she saw that the Dominación simply stood over her, wiping the blood off his sword in a disinterested fashion, but made no further attempt to spring another attack on her.

Rukia furrowed her eyebrows in confusion. Was that mercy he was showing her? _No_, she realized with a jolt. That evil bastard plan to leave her as it is. To bleed to death in the most slow and antagonizing way. That was fine with her. He had won her fair and square in a match, and the victor had the right to dictate how the loser would die. "What is… your name?"

She felt the other turn his dispassionate gaze on her as he regarded her question. After a brief pause of careful consideration, he decided that telling her that piece of information was harmless seeing as she was about to die soon. "You may call me Superbia." He stated impassively. "I am the Dominación of Pride, Superbia."

Rukia suddenly found that going into a deep sleep was a simply alluring thought at the moment. As she succumbed to unconsciousness, she had a last, uncomfortable thought. Pride, the very same reason she pulled through until today. The pride she had for her own abilities, for her friends, for Ichigo… and she had been stabbed right through the body by its embodiment. The irony of it all. It was excruciating.

* * *

Ishida had to stifle a gasp of horror the moment the cloud of dust cleared from his vision. He could hear Renji doing the same beside him. All it took was a single, brief moment. And now they bore witness to the Octava Espada's abrupt death.

"H-How?" Szayel gasped out, blood dripping down his chin and pooling around his feet. His sharply clawed hands dangled uselessly down his side, his body stiffly held in place by numerous jet-black spikes piercing through them. "To think there was this much a difference in power between us…"

"It's exactly because of this difference that Aizen has decided that you're no longer useful." The Dominación stated, a tinge of bitterness held in his voice.

"And that's supposed to be my fault?" Szayel sneered, coughing up more blood as he did so. "Don't jest yourself, _Acedia_. Once Aizen-sama finds himself a replacement for you, then you'll soon be finding yourself in my position today-"

"That time won't come." Acedia cut in snappishly. "Aizen-sama is already contented with the power he currently holds. There isn't any need for him to find more." He made a swishing motion with his arms, as though commanding his attack to end Szayel's life then and there. The sounds of impending footsteps however, halted him in his attack.

"Oh, I won't be too sure about _that_." A new voice spoke up snidely. "Otherwise, he wouldn't be so desperately trying to create the King's Key as we speak."

Acedia turned his narrowed eyes to lock onto a heavily clothed figure. He remembered that flamboyant style of dressing and clown-like features from Ulquiorra's reports of Soul Society. Sighing, he realized that the old fart leading his team of Shinigami had finally made his move. About time. Idly noting that his talk time with Szayel had ran out, he swiftly pulled out his attacks from the other, drawing a strangled gasp of pain from the pink haired espada.

"We'll meet in hell, Acedia." Szayel spat out his last venomously, yellow eyes gleaming with madness and rage from within. "And I'll make sure that you suffer through five times the amount of every single pain I did."

Szayel was never more outraged as Acedia simply clucked his tongue in impatience and waved his hand lazily in his direction. Black engulfed him a moment after, and pain covered every single part of his body. Then, there was nothingness.

"It seems as though Aizen had failed to install manners into you, _boy_." The newly arrived shinigami captain shifted, irate at being ignored by the Domacion. "Never matter, I will note to do so once I have captured you for experimentation. I must say, I am extremely interested in your kind."

"Sadly, I can't say the same for you. There are too many of _your_ kind running around to consider you a novelty." Acedia drawled blandly, not even bothering to make eye contact with the Shinigami captain in front of him. "Anyways, we have been expecting you, Kurotsuchi Mayuri-taichou. Allow us to give you a warm welcome on Aizen-sama's behalf."

"I feel honored that you'd be my escort." Mayuri grinned down widely at the black clad Arrancar in front of him. "Especially if you're as _slothful_ as your name implies, Acedia."

The returning grin on the youthful face of the Arrancar before him sent shivers down the twelfth division's captain spine, changing the smile into a frown. Muffled voices caught his ears and he turned his head downwards to see the retarded Quincy and Kuchiki's Lieutenant bound and gagged by an unfamiliar black substance.

"Oh, I won't be the one escorting you, taichou." Acedia drawled languidly. With a snap of his fingers, he had rendered both hostages unconscious by flinging them into nearby chunks of rubble located behind him. With another snap of fingers, the black substance wrapped themselves tighter against both bodies, and with a sickening twist and several ominous popping noises, dislocated several joints, leaving the two lying limply on the floor.

It was an uncouth method of rendering your opponent immobile, but Mayuri grudgingly admitted that it did its job nevertheless. Barbarians, the lot of them. Aizen planned to take over the Soul King with an army of apathetic savages that served to his every single whim.

Two dark narrowed pupils finally locked into his own yellow ones, and Mayuri's instincts told him to _move now_. He made to shunpo a distance away from his potential test subject, but found that he couldn't move the lower part of his body. Looking down, he realized that the other already had the black substance engulfing his lower torso.

'_How did he manage to bind me without me noticing-' _Mayuri's train of thoughts was broken off as his eyes caught a section of the ground that glimmered strangely under the sunlight. Oh right. Those creepy substances could bloody _camouflage_ themselves. He felt like slapping himself for not even considering the possibility. Because really, who would?

There was a swish of clothing behind him, and Mayuri had to crack his neck as far back as possible to see the newcomer. There was no reiatsu signature, no scent, no shadow to even give him any indication that there was another of _them_ in the vicinity. _'Just how long have she been waiting here?'_

If he thought Acedia was dull with his straight cut black drapery, then the Dominación in front of him had to be the other's complete opposite. For one, it was a female. And she was sporting the most bizarre ensemble of black clothing, which clung tightly against her athletic frame, exposing well-toned biceps, stomach abs, and legs. And lastly, though her hollow mask covered the upper portion of her head like most of the Dominación he came across thus far, it did not manage to hide the pink hair that fanned down across her back.

"Meet your escort, Avaritia." Acedia spoke up from behind him, a smirk barely distinguishable from his usual monotonous drawl. "I wouldn't recommend playing around with her too much. She tends to get quite… possessive if she thinks you're not treating her seriously enough."

"Let's get along well, shall we taichou?" Avaritia chirped all too cheerfully, before planting a fist deep into the captain's abdomen the same time the black substance released its hold on him, sending the Shinigami plummeting fifty feet downwards into a large crater created by the sheer force behind the single punch. Mayuri didn't even know what hit him.

Avaritia was looking all too ready to jump into the crater that she had created, to pummel the captain to smithereens and get Aizen-sama's orders over and done with. However, she halted before she could do so, pausing and frowning as she quirked her head to the side, as though listening to a softly spoken message.

"It seems as though Aizen-sama is finally getting serious." She commented to her fellow Dominación quietly, rubbing her temples in frustration. "We need to leave. _Now_. Before _he_ gets too impatient."

Acedia clucked his tongue once again, before recalling his attack on the Quincy and Shinigami pair, and straightened his robes out. "It'll take us at least fifteen minutes to reach there, even with Sonido." He muttered irritably, having heard the message as well. "Troublesome."

He was met with Avaritia's amused emerald eyes in response, before the two of them blinked out from the area, hastily making their way to their assigned point before their leader blew his top on them.

* * *

Ichigo bit back a curse and backpedaled hurriedly out of the way, before a set of sharp metal claws came swinging down upon where he was a brief moment ago. Ichigo belatedly realized that the said Dominación in front of him had to be a cyborg. They had been battling it out for over the last twenty minutes, and though exhaustion was starting to take a toil on his body, the tanned Arrancar in front of him still seemed to be going strong. If not, stronger.

It wasn't unexpected to find himself on the defensive before long, barely able to defect the attacks that were raining down upon him relentlessly. Grimmjow jeering at his feeble attempts at dodging the other's claws from behind Orihime's _Souten Kisshun_ didn't aid in boosting his motivation much. Nothing he did seemed to throw the black clad Arrancar off. Not even his bankai- which he was running too low on reiatsu to even maintain it properly. Grimacing, Ichigo realized that he was barely able to continue fighting the other as it was.

It seemed as though his opponent seemed to have read his defeatist thoughts, as he halted in his tracks, giving Ichigo enough time to shunpo away, leaving ample distance between them for him to flee or continue fighting. "Boring. You're as boring as hell, Kurosaki Ichigo." The Arrancar seemed to seethe. "Fighting with you really doesn't pump me up one single bit. Are you even putting any goddamn effort into this fight?"

Ichigo felt affronted. He's been labeled many different names by many of his other opponents, but the word 'boring' was a new term for him. "Boring? Me? I'll show you what's _boring,_ you sonnova-"

He could practically feel the other rolling his eyes at him from under that hollow mask. "The only thing that's interesting here is your _name_." The Arrancar spat out. "Now if you're gonna continue wasting my time like this, I'll just get straight down to the main show and slaughter that blue haired idiot and that woman-"

"Leave Orihime out of this!" Ichigo cried out indignantly. "I won't let you lay a single finger on her-"

"You're just full of bark and no bite." His opponent scoffed back. "Fine, I wanted to see what's so special about you, but it seems as though you're not as big-shot as what others made you up to be."

Before Ichigo could even retaliate, the other was already in front of his face, and had already plunged his claws straight into his abdomen. As Ichigo's mind reeled at the sheer speed that the other had displayed, the Arrancar pulled his claws out of the other roughly, shoving him face first into the scorching sand below him as he did so.

"Stupid brat, I should've just done this from the start." He grumbled, ignoring the screams of dismay and horror from the orange haired woman. He proceeded to take a step forward to kill off the other two as Aizen-sama has ordered him to, but a hand grasping his ankle forced him to pause.

"Leave. Orihime. Out of this!" Ichigo gasped out, gritting his teeth in pain.

The Arrancar felt something inside of him snap. Maybe it was from the stupidity from both orange haired humans, or the dramatics of it all. Either way, he kicked the teenaged boy to lie face forward onto his back, and stomped one foot on the other's windpipe, proceeding to suffocate the life out of the idiot who wasted his time. He had an _agenda_ to keep, for Pete's sake!

"What are you doing, Gula!" An irate voice hissed from behind him. Crap. Now it seemed as though his fun had been cut to a short.

Gula didn't pause at what he was doing, but he tossed his head nonchalantly back to fix a rigid stare at the other. "Fulfilling orders, Luxuria."

"You mean you still haven't-" Luxuria broke off as she caught sight of Grimmjow's hunched form glaring back at her from below the cliff's sheltered confinements. "Oh, never mind. Forget that, we have to leave now. You received the message, haven't you?"

"Screw that message. I won't have a peace of mind until I get rid of this eyesore!" Gula said waspishly, and proceeded to raise his _Tekko-kagi _up into the air for a final swing. "That idiot can wait."

"Don't be stupid, this takes first priority." Luxuria snapped down at her fellow Dominación, making an impatient tugging motion with her hands. Gula was immediately flung away from the gasping teenager and steadied himself as he landed heavily behind her. "You know what'll happened if we disobey orders." She said warningly, turning to glare at his insubordination.

"Alright, I got you." Gula sighed, standing up and holding his hands out in front of him in a pacifying gesture. "You lead the way then, cuz I have absolutely no idea on how to get there."

"Figures." Luxuria snorted. "But let's clean up the mess you failed to fix first." Saying so, she reached up to grab one of the six hairpieces that held her hair back neatly in place. It slid out smoothly, bone white, sleek, and piercingly sharp that the bottom end. Tossing it carelessly to the bottom of the cliff where Grimmjow, Ichigo and Orihime were, it disintegrated into tiny, microscopic particles with a flick of her wrist. With another flick, the particles began to spread out to form a barely visible barrier around the three.

"You won't find yourself able to breathe anytime soon." She said in reply to the three confused expressions directed in her direction. "I've set up a barrier that will prohibit all oxygen molecules from entering from it. Soon, they won't be any left for you to survive on."

"Why are you doing this?" Ichigo managed to regain enough breath to choke out. Nevermind that he will be running out if it soon enough. "Didn't you say that you wanted to rebel against Aizen at that time?"

"Don't misinterpret us, Kurosaki Ichigo." Luxuria said boldly. "Aizen-sama is the sole reason that we're alive to this day. Without him, our existence would be meaningless. Naturally, anything that is a threat to him, will be considered as a threat to us, and we'll deal with it accordingly."

"Even if your precious Aizen-sama will toss you away himself in the end?" Ichigo retorted. "Because trust me, he will. Look at what he's ordering you to do to the Espada."

"Even then, we will willingly die for him, as it meant that we have served our purpose for living." Luxuria replied smoothly without missing a beat. "We also mentioned that the next time we meet, you'd be breathing your last. Goodbye, Grimmjow, Ichigo."

With an abrupt turning of heels, Luxuria sped out of sight, and Gula a moment after, chasing after her wake. He whistled in appreciation from behind her. "That was a bull-load of crap. As expected from her majesty. I couldn't have done it any better myself."

He didn't receive a response in return.

* * *

"Ten minutes and twenty-two seconds." The flat voice of Superbia rang out through the enclosed room. "That's the amount of time you have to defeat me before the girl dies, Captain of the Sixth Division, Kuchiki Byakuya."

"It won't even take me five." Byakuya was quick to reply, standing protectively over his step-sister's fallen and bleeding frame. He was quick to command Senbonzakura to enter Shikai mode however, and a split second later, all of the glowing blades were rushing hungrily at the Dominación, eager to draw blood.

"Don't be too full of yourself." Superbia warned sternly. He battled away the incoming blades with ease, pulling out Sonido after Sonido to dodge out of the Zanpakuto's path. "If there's one thing I hate most in the world, that's losing."

"You have already lost the moment you allow Aizen to gain control over your very being." Byakuya said coolly. "Your very existence is a failure- a proof of a madman's broken belief that he is a being superior to god's. A belief that could never come true."

"Oh? But it will." Superbia quirked an amused grin, causing the Kuchiki to frown in confusion as to what the other was getting at. "There is no such thing as a god in this world. That makes Aizen-sama's ascension to one a lot easier seeing as there isn't any competition to begin with in the first place. With us by his side, such a goal is easily attainable."

Byakuya's eyes widened perceivably as he deciphered through the other's words. If that really was the true intentions of the wayward captain, then like the Dominación has stated, that goal was truly just a hairsbreadth away from completion. Especially with the seven freaks of nature by his side, Aizen could very well become a god the moment the right time has come.

"You're spacing out." The cruel, cold voice of Superbia cut sharply into his thoughts, a little too close for comfort. Byakuya could only manage a shunpo away in time before a black blade sliced away at where he was a split second ago. As it was, he had gotten away with a long diagonal gash on his left forearm.

"_Bankai: Senbonzakura Kageyoshi_." Byakuya narrowed his eyes as he concentrated all his reiatsu into one single blade. "_Shuukei: Hakuteiken_." Senbonzakura barely had enough time to shield its master in pure white light, the newly formed bird-like aura barely blocking the thin black sword which came crashing upon it mere seconds later.

As thin as the double-bladed sword was, the force behind it was not. The explosion of reiatsu sent both combatants flying backwards, creating distance between them, and giving each other time for another onslaught of attacks that were bound to happen.

"It looks like you've finally decided to get serious." Superbia stated impassively, backpedalling a few steps away. He flung his melted sword outwards experimentally, as though gauging if it was still usable or not. "Very well. Such willpower deserves a similar one in return."

"You shall now bear witness as to why we are Aizen-sama's strongest." Holding out his beaten blade in front of him, Superbia's eyes seemed to glow alight with reiatsu beneath. "_Torikakomu_, _Dios de la Guerra." _

The entire room seemed to tremble with the sheer force of the reiatsu the Dominación was feeding into his Resurrección. The floors quivered, and the grand chandeliers teetered dangerously from the tall ceilings, pouring loose debris onto the combatants below. Byakuya in one swift motion, hoisted Rukia under one arm and shunpo her to safety towards the far end of the expensive room.

As the light lessened, the reiatsu around Superbia seemed to compress itself to form a large skeleton that stood protectively over the Arrancar's slender frame. Unlike the Resurrección of many other Arrancar however, the Dominación himself barely seemed to have undergone any changes to his form. He still stood at the center of the power vortex, purely humanoid. The only change which stood out was the light shrinking of the other's hollow mask, exposing cruelly gleaming blood-red pupils, enhanced by the white Estigma running across his eyes in a straight horizontal line.

Byakuya's thoughts whirled. The reiatsu that Superbia was giving off felt too familiar for comfort. Coupled with the fact that the Dominación had barely sported any hint of a hollow-like appendage even though a Resurrección was supposed to do just that, Byakuya felt dead pooling deep inside his stomach. It was almost like-

"It's almost like what your kind would call 'Bankai'." Superbia spoke up, a smirk evident in his haughty tone. "This just means that Aizen-sama is just a step closer at perfecting the perfect being." With a final flick of his wrist, the skeleton that towered over the Arrancar burst into blue flames, fiendish hellfire which melted the stone hard floors and pillars surrounding him.

Byakuya hardened his eyes as he prepared his own Bankai for the tough fight that was about to come. He felt Senbonzakura feeding off his determination to win, expanding his white wings to its fullest, and curling themselves protectively against his body. His Hakuteiken elongated as far as possible, the entirety of his reiatsu concentrated to that very tip of the blade.

He was forced to dodge forwards as a large pillar of burning reiatsu crashed behind him, quick to spread outwards and lap up everything within a twenty-foot radius. Looking up, he saw Superbia pointing his index finger in his direction, his other hand pulled back as though drawing back an invisible bow.

Byakuya was quick to jump upwards into the air as the Dominación released his hands, and the gigantic behemoth of a skeleton let loose another flaming arrow which whizzed pass from under his feet. Knowing that they had to pull this into a close-ranged combat if he wanted to bring the other down in the fastest way possible, Byakuya started a dive towards Superbia, but the other was a step ahead of the captain.

It was almost as though Superbia could read the other's thoughts. With every dodge Byakuya took, he was always already firing another cero laced arrow, forcing the captain to dodge again. With every step forward, Superbia would take a step back, carefully maintaining the distance Byakuya was so determined to break. Those red eyes never left his form, always tracking his every minute movement.

Finally, Byakuya saw Superbia pausing briefly in his onslaught of arrows, and he was quick to take advantage of the moment. Dodging the slightly misfired arrow midair, the captain swiftly plunged his concentrated reiatsu sword deep into the skull of the skeleton.

There was brief horrifying moment as a loud cracking sound pierced through the room. Cracks appeared at the surface of the skull, but his Hakuteiken didn't manage to penetrate any deeper. Wincing in pain, Superbia hissed, and swung his left arm outwards, his piercing red eyes still locked onto his person. Byakuya bit back a curse as he realized that the blue flames were climbing up his sword like a plague, lapping up everything in its path and rushing hungrily towards human flesh.

"_Gokei_." Byakuya ordered his zanpakuto, which was quick to obey as it dissolved and scattered around the Dominación in a loose circle. With a neatly executed shunpo, Byakuya ensured that he was well out of the blast range before gripping shut an outreached palm. Senbonzakura was quick to obey his command, squeezing itself down onto the black clad Arrancar.

The impending explosion never came. Byakuya's eyes widened perceivably as Senbonzakura was blasted outwards, lodging its sharp minuscule blades into the nearest slabs of concrete it was flung into. "Your attacks are futile." The smoke cleared to display Superbia still in prim condition, much to Byakuya's dismay. "You'll have to try harder than that if you wish to break my perfect defense."

With a snap of his fingers, Superbia had lit all of his tiny blades aflame; melting them into nothing more than burnt pieces of metal. His red gaze never leaving his face, Superbia strolled languidly towards the captain's tensed form, which stood unmoving infront of Rukia's unconscious frame. With the artificial lighting destroyed from their destructive battle, the only source of illumination came from the eerie blue flames that licked the grounds it stood on. And Superbia who stood amidst the burning demolition, truly resembled a demon straight out from hell.

"It will be satisfying to kill someone of your pedigree, Kuchiki Byakuya." Superbia sneered, his voice held something akin to glee within them. "To reduce someone as proud as you into something so defenseless and helpless-"

"You've fallen to a new low the last time I saw you."

Superbia's eyes immediately snapped towards somewhere behind Byakuya's form. Turning around, the captain could make out an indistinguishable figure peeling itself off from the shadows at the edge of the walls. The blue light from the flames was quick to highlight the other's distinctive features- a stock of shockingly yellow hair, and a set of whiskered marked cheeks.

"Lieutenant of the Thirteenth Division." Byakuya stated impassively. "You're late."

Blue pupils that held none of its usual cheer or mischievousness locked onto his own briefly in confirmation before quickly reverting its attention back onto the Arrancar. "Sorry, I was… busy getting the playing field into shape." There was a brief burst of killing intent, before deep red reiatsu frothed into view, enveloping its owner in a red cloak of highly condensed, potent magma.

If the Dominación could get the newcomer into invoke such a strong reaction from the latter, then Byakuya decided that he really had taken his opponent all too lightly.

"Take Rukia and go." The blond interrupted the captain's musings. "Unohana-taichou and Kenpatchi-taichou seem to need in dealing with a certain Zero Espada. I'll handle things here."

"Come back alive. Seireitei still have uses for you." Byakuya consented grudgingly, as he scooped Rukia up from under his arms. He knew that he was no longer of any capability to fight. Senbonzakura had been thoroughly reduced to melted pieces of rubble, and it would take him time to get his zanpakuto back to what it was before.

"We'll see." The reluctant smile on the other's face through Byakuya off his stoic composure. With a jolt, he realized that the other really did come down to Hueco Mundo with the intention to stay there permanently.

The old man wouldn't be pleased, but Byakuya didn't feel like stopping the blond Shinigami at all. Sighing, Byakuya turned and sped out of the collapsing burning building and into the vast desert. If there was anyone who deserved to pursue his happiness in the world, it was definitely him. The corners of his mouth twitched upwards as he pictured what the other captains of the Gotei Thirteen would say to that.

"I thought you would intercept sooner than this, Uzumaki Naruto."

Though Superbia wore a blank expression on his face, the confusion laced within his words brought a small smile to Naruto's lips. "What can I say. This is a new place for me. A man can't help but stop to sightsee, can he?"

Superbia frowned disapprovingly at the other's lackadaisical answer. "They did say curiosity killed the cat."

"Bah, the cat has nine lives, it won't be killed off so easily." Naruto's gaze hardened as his eyes locked onto the figure in front of him. His eyes scanned the black clad Arrancar from head to bottom, as though searching the other for an answer he couldn't find. "Apparently, you won't either."

He didn't receive a reply in return. That was alright, he wasn't expecting one in return anyway. Naruto brandished his scythe warningly against his body, readjusting his grip on it to fit his hand better. He smiled bitterly towards the other. "It's been awhile… Sasuke."

* * *

Author's Notes:

Merry Christmas, everyone.

I'm really sorry I haven't updated in the past few…months. But just wanna let you guys know that I haven't lost any interest in this fic at all. My updates will still be sporadic, but yeah, I am determined to finish this fic even it kills me.

I felt like my writing abilities seemed to have downgraded due to the lack of using it; I'm really, truly sorry for it all! And thank you so much for putting up with my lazy, procrastinating ass.

Yup, the game's up on the Dominacion's true identities! Sorry, I tried being secretive about the entire thing and all, but suspense isn't really my cup of tea. Some of you have probably already guessed it on the previous chapter. _

Vocab:  
_Dangai_- Parsing World, the dimension between Soul Society and the Human World.  
_Brazo Izquierda del Diablo- _Left Arm of the Devil_  
__La Muerte- _The Death_  
Tekko-kagi- _Hand Claws_  
__Shuukei: Hakuteiken- _Last Sight: White Emperor Sword  
_Goukei_- Mawscape_  
Torikakomu_, _Dios de la Guerra- _Surround, God of War

Anyways hoped that you've enjoyed this chapter. Do feel free to approach me if you spot any mistakes be it factually or grammatically.

Until next time,

TenkuuBatsu


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